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THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 


THE 

ARCHBISHOP'S 
TEST 


BY 

E.  M.  GREEN 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

68i  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright,  1915 
By  E.  p.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


TO    THE   FRIEND 

TO  WHOM    I    AM    INDEBTED 

FOR   THE   IDEA   OF   THIS   BOOK 


799318 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S 
TEST 


N 


CHAPTER  I 

*'n^  Tow  that  all  the  ceremonies  are 
over,"  said  the  chaplain,  "I  fear 
that  I  must  remind  your  Grace 
that  there  is  an  immense  accumulation  of 
correspondence  needing  attention." 

The  Archbishop  was  looking  out  into  the 
sunshine  with  a  preoccupied  air,  and  did  not 
immediately  answer ;  after  a  few  minutes  he 
said  dreamily: 

"Are  there  many  letters?" 

"An  appalling  number.  Half  of  them 
are  requests  for  your  patronage  of  Church 
societies.  I  can  answer  those  if  you  like 
without  your  troubling  to  read  them.     It  is 


2  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  Archbishop 
is  President  of  every  Church  society." 

Again  the  Archbishop  was  silent — pro- 
vokingly  so,  for  the  minutes  wasted  might 
have  seen  several  letters  answered  by  the  sec- 
retaries waiting  in  the  next  room. 

The  chaplain  was  bent  upon  organisation. 
To  organise  well  from  the  first  was  the  great 
thing,  the  pigeon-holes  and  tape  were  ready, 
the  secretaries  well  chosen;  all  that  was 
needed  was  for  the  Primate  to  give  the  word 
and  the  machinery  of  the  province  would 
show  its  perfect  working. 

"Is  it  a  foregone  conclusion  that  I  am  the 
Ai'chbishop  ?" 

It  was  the  chaplain's  turn  to  hesitate  now. 

"I  do  not  quite  understand,"  he  mur- 
mured. 

"No  ?"  said  the  other,  smiling.  "Well,  for 
the  moment  let  us  forget  that  we  have  al- 
ways been  Tom  and  Jack  to  each  other  since 
the  old  Twyford  days.  You  beat  me  there, 
as  you  beat  me  at  Eton  and  Oxford,  and  yet 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  3 

by  the  Providence  of  God  I  am  to-day  Arch- 
bishop, and  I  shall  always  claim  from  you 
what  a  man  asks  of  his  dearest  friend.  But 
you  will  sometimes  wonder  and  possibly 
doubt.  All  I  ask  of  you  is  patience.  Some 
things  I  shall  explain,  for  the  rest  you  must 
trust  me." 

Crawford  murmured  a  few  words,  and  the 
Archbishop  went  on:  "I  come  to  this  post 
at  a  critical  time.  The  Prayer  Book  Revi- 
sion scheme  is  waiting  for  me,  and  many 
other  schemes  of  importance.  I  know  quite 
well  that  the  eyes  of  England  are  upon  me 
to  see  what  line  I  take  in  a  complicated 
struggle." 

The  chaplain  bowed  in  silence. 

"We  two  archbishops  have  taken  counsel 
with  each  other,  and  now  we  are  approach- 
ing the  Bishops  of  the  provinces,  and  per- 
haps the  greatest  difficulty  will  be  with 
them." 

Crawford's  surprise  kept  him  silent. 

"Some  of  the  schoolmaster  Bishops  will 


4  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

not  lightly  part  with  organisation,"  contin- 
ued the  Archbishop.  "Really  the  activities 
of  the  religious  world  to-day  are  overwhelm- 
ing. They  killed  my  predecessor,  for,  after 
all,  an  archbishop  is  but  human,  and  there 
are  only  twenty-four  hours  in  a  day  and  a 
night.  Have  you  ever  considered,  Tom,  all 
that  the  late  Archbishop  did?  To  be  head 
of  a  province  is  enough,  without  being  head 
of  a  diocese!  Then,  think  of  the  societies 
and  the  meetings,  the  work  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  the  work  all  over  the  world  where  the 
Church  is  in  communion  with  Canterbury. 
Think  of  the  books  he  must  read,  the  sub- 
jects he  must  get  up,  the  sermons  he  must 
preach!  Does  it  leave  him  any  leisure  for 
prayer  and  meditation  and  the  saving  of  his 
own  soul?" 

In  spite  of  the  questions  asked,  the  Arch- 
bishop did  not  seem  to  expect  any  answer, 
and  as  he  ceased  sneaking,  he  covered  his 
face  with  his  hands  and  sighed  deeply. 

"I  wish  I  could  do  more,"  said  Crawford. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  5 

"Of  course  it  is  a  terrible  responsibility,  but 
I  suppose  it  must  go  on." 

"Some  things  must  go  on,  but  now  I  will 
tell  you  our  scheme,  and  you,  who  are  deeply 
conservative  in  spite  of  your  Oxford  social- 
ism, will  not  like  it.  We  are  not  going  on 
with  the  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and 
for  this  reason:  The  Prayer  Book  as  it 
stands  has  never  had  a  chance.  Give  it  a 
chance,  and  then  if  it  fails  we  may  think 
about  revision,  but  it  shall  have  its  chance." 

"I  should  have  thought,"  said  Crawford, 
"that  it  had  had  a  pretty  long  chance." 

"Consider  a  moment.  Can  you  point  to 
the  Bishop  or  Parish  Priest  who  obeys  the 
Prayer  Book  in  every  particular?" 

"Honestly,"  said  Crawford,  "I  cannot 
think  of  any  point  in  which  the  Bishops 
err." 

"What  about  the  age  for  Confirmation? 
What  about  matters  of  personal  discipline? 
Are  fast  days  observed  in  every  Palace? 
Oh,  go  deeper,  Crawford,  do  the  lonely  par- 


6  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

ish  priests  find  in  their  Bishop  a  Shepherd? 
Does  he  hold  up  the  weak  and  bind  up  the 
broken?  Is  he  alwaj^s  gentle  to  all  desti- 
tute of  help  ?  O  God,  if  we  might  be !  Be- 
lieve me,  the  fault  begins  with  us." 

The  spring  sunlight  hngered  on  the 
Thorn-Crowned  Head  of  the  Man  of  Sor- 
rows in  the  old  picture  on  the  wall,  and  for 
a  moment  the  eyes  of  both  men  were  fixed 
on  it. 

"Then  there  are  the  plain  orders  of  the 
Prayer  Book  which  are  openly  set  at  naught 
in  most  parishes — the  order  that  daily  prayer 
is  to  be  used.  It  is  small  wonder  that  men 
in  the  Army  and  Navy  speak  slightingly  of 
Church  discipline,  for  such  negligence  would 
be  impossible  in  the  Service.  Now,  our 
scheme  is  this :  We  plead  that  for  two  years 
the  Prayer  Book  shall  be  obeyed,  and  for 
those  two  years  all  the  good  societies  which 
try  to  supplement  the  present  laxity  shall 
cease  their  work.  Of  course  we  cannot  en- 
force the  latter,  but  I  earnestly  hope  that 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  7 

the  scheme  may  have  a  trial.  Now  we  will 
draft  a  letter  which,  with  slight  alterations, 
will  do  for  every  society  soliciting  my  pat- 
ronage, and,  if  at  the  end  of  two  years  it 
should  seem  well  that  the  society  should 
continue,  I  will  then  become  its  patron." 

Blank  dismay  was  written  on  the  chap- 
lain's face  as  he  leant  towards  his  friend. 

"Let  me  speak  this,  once,"  he  pleaded, 
"and  afterwards  I  will  hold  my  peace. 
May  I  say  just  what  I  think  as  in  the  old 
days?" 

"Of  course  you  may,  old  fellow." 

"Well,  have  you  considered  all  that  there 
is  just  now  to  make  so  radical  an  experiment 
risky?  The  moral  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  electricity,  only  the  gi-eatest  wisdom 
can  steer  clear  of  an  explosion." 

"An  explosion  is  better  than  indiffer- 
ence." 

"Yes,  but  is  this  the  time  for  it?  Ma- 
terialism has  had  its  day,  mysticism  is  in  the 
air,  it  may  make  for  faith,  or  it  may  run 


8  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

wild.  Is  it  the  hour  for  new  develop- 
ments?" 

"No,  but  the  Prayer  Book  is  scarcely- 
new." 

"Your  proposed  attitude  to  it  will  be." 

"Should  it  be  new?" 

"Oh,  you  will  beat  me  with  argument, 
but  just  think  of  the  result  of  your  action. 
I  must  say  it  plainly.  It  will  be  utterly 
unpopular." 

"If  it  were  popular  I  should  hesitate," 
said  the  Archbishop  gravely.  "Was  John 
the  Baptist  popular?  The  Church  in  this 
country  has  failed  because  we  have  tried  to 
run  it  on  the  conventions  of  society — with 
respectability  thrown  in." 

"Oh,  Jack,  hsten!  Forget  for  a  moment 
that  you  are  the  Archbishop,  and  consider 
other  things.  Reverse  the  Red  Queen's 
advice,  and  remember  how  young  you  are. 
Nearly  all  the  Bishops  are  older  than  you, 
and  they  have  plodded  along  on  certain  lines 
for   years;   you   will   offend   them.     Your 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  9 

scheme  may  be  a  sound  one,  but  are  you  the 
man  to  carry  it  out?" 

His  friend  rose  to  his  feet  and  walked 
over  to  the  window,  his  face  half  hidden 
from  Crawford. 

"Then  there  are  other  things  in  the  air," 
went  on  the  chaplain.  "We  don't  want  a 
split  now  for  many  reasons.  I  am  not  think- 
ing so  much  of  politics  and  the  Welsh  Bill 
as — as  some  things." 

"What  things?" 

"Well,  I  have  just  been  down  in  Essex, 
and  there  the  Roman  Catholics  are  increas- 
ing rapidly.  They  have  schools,  and  are 
building  churches,  and  our  people  are  going 
over." 

"Ah!" 

The  Archbishop  came  back  to  his  chair, 
and  looked  his  chaplain  straight  in  the  face. 

"You  are  right  in  saying  that  I  am  not 
the  man  for  so  great  a  work;  but  being  the 
Archbishop,  I  have  no  choice.  In  all  else 
that  you  say  (except  about  my  youth,  which 


10  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

will  soon  change)  your  arguments  are 
against  your  convictions.  Materialism  is 
passing.  Don't  you  see  that  now  more  than 
ever  thought  is  of  infinitely  greater  impor- 
tance than  action,  and  prayer,  the  highest 
thought  of  all,  is  the  one  thing  that  counts. 
It  is  strange  that  in  the  many  letters  ahout 
the  Athanasian  Creed  in  the  Daily  Press, 
no  one  has  laid  hold  of  this,  its  underlying 
current:  That  the  spring  of  all  life  is  be- 
lief, and  therefore  it  is  thought  not  action 
that  needs  our  primary  care.  You  remem- 
ber how  we  both  devoured  Bishop  Paget's 
Essay  on  Thoughts  long  ago?  Then  the 
Roman  invasion  tells  entirely  on  my  side, 
for  I  know  in  what  the  attraction  of  Rome 
lies.  She  speaks  with  authority,  and  she 
shows  men  that  in  the  Church  lies  all  the 
help  and  comfort  and  pardon  which  they 
need.  We  must  be  more  spiritual,  not  less, 
if  we  are  to  win  back  England." 

"It  is  a  risky  experiment." 

"It  should  not  be  an  experiment.     We 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  11 

ought  to  act  as  if  we  believed  that  God  could 
manage  His  Church  and  His  world.  The 
Prayer  Book,  founded  on  Scripture,  grasps 
the  truth  that  prayer  is  the  divine  tool  to 
he  used;  but  we  have  set  it  aside,  and  tried 
man-made  plans.  To  my  mind  it  is  not  a 
question  of  which  mode  will  be  the  more 
successful  so  much  as  a  question  as  to  which 
is  right." 

"If  all  Church  societies  stop  working  for 
two  years,  you  will  create  in  many  lives  an 
unwonted  amount  of  leisure." 

The  Archbishop  laughed. 

"Well,  that  certainly  is  needed  at  the 
present  time.  They  will  get  time  to  think, 
and  they  can  attend  the  daily  services." 

Crawford  frowned,  then  he  said: 

"Do  not  think  me  ungracious,  or  unwill- 
ing to  help  you  to  the  uttermost  of  my 
power,  but  really  I  shall  be  no  help  if  I  am 
not  convinced  by  your  scheme.  I  see  its 
bearings,  and  I  know  that  from  your  point 
of  view  you  are  right,  but " 


12  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

"Yes,  there  is  a  great  'But.'  " 

"Let  me  resign,"  cried  the  chaplain; 
"there  are  a  dozen  men  who  would  help  you 
more — Ridley,  Holt,  Cunningham.  For 
your  own  sake,  put  one  of  these  in  my  place. 
The  days  are  coming  when  the  world,  if  not 
the  Church,  will  be  against  you,  and  you  will 
be  terribly  lonely.  Oh,  let  me  go!  In 
some  obscure  parish  I  will  work  out  your 
scheme  to  the  uttermost,  but  here  I  shall  be 
no  good." 

The  deep  grey  eyes  turned  on  him  with 
a  light  that  no  man  could  mistake. 

"Better  you,  Tom,  as  you  are  than  an- 
other man  red-hot  with  enthusiasm.  There 
must  be  an  'opposition' ;  you  will  help  me  to 
see  it  here  before  it  comes  upon  me  from 
outside.  But  I  keep  you  because  you  are 
my  friend,  and  you  can  help  me  as  can  no 
other  man  in  the  wide  world." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  two  Archbishops  had  spoken  and 
sat    down    again,    waiting    in    the 
crowded  hbrary,  where  the  expres- 
sion on  each  bishop's  face  was  a  study. 

The  member  of  the  Episcopal  Bench  who 
thought  the  least  was  the  first  to  speak,  and 
his  voice  betrayed  the  fact  that  he  was  very 
angry. 

He  did  not  understand  what  their  Graces 
meant ;  it  would  seem  as  if  they  were  on  their 
trial  for  Deacon's  Orders,  rather  than  the 
Heads  of  Sees,  where  they  had  been  for 
many  years.  There  was  nothing  new  in  the 
Prayer  Book,  they  all  knew  the  Prayer 
Book  and  obeyed  it,  and  speaking  for  his 
own  diocese  he  could  say  that  as  a  whole  his 
clergy  obeyed  it.  There  were  a  few  young 
men,  tainted  with  aesthetic  notions  and  love 

13 


14.  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

of  ritual  who  were  inclined  to  tamper  with 
the  reformed  religion  and  introduce  Romish 
vestments  and  customs;  but  their  number 
was  few,  and  he  should  have  thought  that 
the  Archbishops  might  have  realised  that  it 
had  been  his  ceaseless  endeavour  to  thwart 
these  young  men,  and  convince  them  of  their 
errors.  If  there  were  any  others  in  his  dio- 
cese guilty  of  disobeying  the  Prayer  Book, 
he  should  be  thankful  to  have  their  names 
brought  to  his  notice.  He  sat  down  hot  and 
defiant,  and  the  Primate's  calm  voice  came 
as  a  soft  breeze  after  a  thunderstorm.  He 
was  bringing  no  accusations  against  any 
diocese  or  parish,  he  was  calling  attention 
to  rubrics  and  orders,  in  some  cases  so  long 
left  in  abeyance  that  they  were  practically 
forgotten.  Perhaps  the  most  generally  ig- 
nored of  these  orders  was  the  direction  to 
read  morning  and  evening  prayer  daily;  if 
in  the  diocese  of  the  last  speaker  it  was  a 
general  custom,  the  parishes  of  his  diocese 
were  blessed  beyond  words. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  15 

Then  arose  a  stormy  discussion  on  the 
subject  of  daily  service,  some  avowing  that 
it  was  a  waste  of  valuable  time,  which  might 
better  be  spent  in  parochial  visitation  and 
convincing  the  sinner  of  the  error  of  his 
ways. 

"The  clergy  cannot  visit  sinners  or  right- 
eous men  at  7  a.  m.,"  said  the  Bishop.  "If 
they  are  not  in  church  they  are  probably  in 
bed." 

But  the  Archbishop  was  too  wise  to  check 
discussion.  When  every  one  had  said  all 
that  he  wished  to  say,  and  very  many  who 
had  said  nothing  had  been  quietly  turning 
over  the  leaves  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and 
taking  mental  notes,  the  Archbishop  again 
got  up  and  looked  at  the  faces  before  him. 

Afterwards  Crawford  described  it  to 
Dennett  the  secretary. 

"He  stood  up  and  spoke  with  that  manner 
of  his  which  disarms  hostility,  and  in  one 
minute  he  had  made  them  feel  how  much 
he  respected  their  age  and  experience,  but 


16  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

he  made  them  feel  too  that  'by  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  he  was  Archbishop,'  and  if,  in 
his  governance  he  erred  through  youth  or 
indiscretion,  he  craved  their  pardon  and 
prayers.  Somehow,  then,  we  seemed  to 
have  got  the  meeting  on  to  a  higher  plat- 
form. You  remember  how  he  used  to  speak 
at  the  Union  and  bowl  over  all  opposition? 
It  was  something  like  that  now.  He  spoke 
of  the  Church  as  a  Divine  Society,  and  the 
Prayer  Book  as  her  manual,  and  then  he 
touched  on  the  fact  that  all  the  real  work  is 
done  in  the  world  tlirough  prayer,  which, 
translated  into  other  language,  only  means 
that  God  does  it,  not  we.  Then  he  showed 
how  it  was  the  intention  of  the  Church  that 
daily  should  the  Great  Sacrifice  be  pleaded, 
but  he  allowed  that  in  some  parishes  that  was 
not  yet  possible.  Still  in  every  parish  daily 
prayers  should  be  held  that  a  perpetual 
intercession  might  go  up  for  every  estate  of 
man.  And  then  came  in  his  reason  for  sus- 
pending the  work  of  societies.     When  all 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  17 

was  done  by  the  Church  it  would  be  super- 
fluous. Then  we  went  on  to  other  things — 
the  due  notice  of  Fast  Days,  and  their 
proper  observance,  the  restoration  of  Holy 
Baptism  on  Sundays  and  Holy  Days  to  its 
j^lace  after  the  Second  Lesson,  instruction 
of  the  children  in  the  Catechism  during  serv- 
ice at  Evening  Prayer  on  Sundays,  and  by 
this  time  I  think  it  began  to  dawn  on  the 
Bishops  that  the  Prayer  Book  had  not  been 
generally  obeyed.  You  will  notice  that  the 
Archbishop  did  not  argue  about  any  of 
these  matters,  he  merely  dwelt  on  them  as 
parts  of  the  Prayer  Book  at  present  neg- 
lected." 

"And  was  that  all?"  asked  Dennett. 

"No,  among  other  things  he  specified  the 
exhortation  to  be  read  in  giving  notice  of  the 
Holy  Communion,  and  in  conjunction  with 
this  he  said  that  the  people  had  a  right  to 
know  of  the  Absolution  in  the  Office  of  the 
Visitation  of  the  Sick,  and  also  that  it  was 
desirable  to  get  those  who  could  not  attend 


18  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

an  Ordination  to  study  the  service  in  their 
Prayer  Books.     At  this  point  the  Bishop  of 

D ,  the  first  speaker,  got  up  suddenly, 

and  asked  whether  his  Grace  wished  to  in- 
troduce auricular  Confession,  upon  which 
his  Grace  said  that  he  wished  the  Prayer 
Book  to  be  known  in  its  entirety,  and  he 
had  mentioned  portions  commonly  over- 
looked. He  left  it  to  them  to  draw  what 
teaching  seemed  right  from  the  Prayer 
Book.  There  were  other  things,  but  I  have 
told  you  the  chief  points." 

"And  now — the  deluge,"  said  the  secre- 
tary, shrugging  his  shoulders. 

"I  suppose  so,"  answered  Crawford. 

There  was  no  lack  of  newspaper  copy  that 
night,  and  the  only  pity  from  a  journalistic 
point  of  view  was  that  this  had  not  come  in 
the  "silly"  season,  for  at  present,  with  the 
heated  state  of  politics,  and  the  London 
season  in  full  swing,  it  was  difficult  to  find 
room  for  it  all.  Moreover,  leader  writers 
on  so  strange  a  theme  could  not  be  produced 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  19 

at  an  hour's  notice,  and  none  of  the  ordinary 
staff  knew  anything  about  the  Prayer  Book. 

Neither  the  editor  nor  the  sub-editor  of 
one  of  the  leading  dailies  remembered  any- 
thing about  the  Baptismal  Service,  though 
the  editor  was  present  at  the  christening  of 
his  only  child,  which  took  place  one  after- 
noon, and  he  recollected  that  he  tipped  the 
verger  for  opening  the  church. 

Just  as  an  office  boy  was  flying  out  to  buy 
or  borrow  a  Prayer  Book,  a  girl  journalist 
came  in  who  supplied  occasional  church 
notes. 

To  her  surprise  and  delight  she  was  taken 
to  the  editor's  room,  where  a  council  had 
been  called  of  any  who  might  help — a  clerk 
interested  in  Pleasant  Sunday  Afternoons, 
a  reporter  known  to  sing  in  a  church  choir, 
and  a  few  others.  The  matter  was  rapidly 
explained,  and  the  girl  was  asked  whether 
her  knowledge  of  the  Church  and  the  Prayer 
Book  was  sufficient  for  her  to  write  a  leader 
which  would  be  above  the  numerous  leaders 


20  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

that  would  appear  to-morrow  in  the  papers. 
The  editor  said  that  if  she  could  guarantee 
the  matter  and  express  it  roughly  he  would 
throw  it  into  shape. 

"Give  me  a  room  and  an  hour's  quiet," 
said  the  girl  with  a  twinkle  in  her  eye,  "and 
you  shall  have  a  leader  that  contains  no  in- 
accuracies." 

Everything  was  provided  for  her,  with  the 
result  that  the  next  day  one  paper  contained 
an  article  which  showed  knowledge  of  the 
matter  in  hand,  and  none  of  the  readers 
knew  that  it  was  owed  to  a  girl  educated  at  a 
Woodard  school,  to  whom  the  Church  was  a 
reality. 

Clerical  letters  poured  in  on  the  editor, 
congratulating  him  on  the  line  he  had  taken, 
and  it  was  assumed  in  theological  circles  that 
the  leader  was  written  by  one  of  the  Canons 
of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

The  girl  herself  was  astonished  at  the 
money  she  received  for  her  hour's  work,  and 
still  more  astonished  when  she  was  taken  on 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  21 

as  a  writer  of  church  leaders;  but  it  meant 
comfort  for  an  invahd  mother,  and  freedom 
from  daily  anxiety.  London  posters  that 
day  exhibited  the  Archbishop  in  every  pos- 
sible light. 

"Archbishop's  Radical  Reforms." 
"Archbishop's    Condemnation    of    Soci- 
eties." 

"Archbishop's  High  Church  Movement." 
"Archbishop  Offends  the  Bench." 
"Archbishop's  Novel  Programme." 
"Archbishop"  is  a  long  word,  but  it  was 
a  word  that  well  repaid  its  outlay,  and  the 
papers  sold  briskly  all  day,  for  when  the 
morning  papers  had  set  forth  the  facts,  and 
all  that  their  respective  editors  thought  on 
the  matter,  it  was  time  to  proclaim  how  the 
scheme  was  received  in  nonconformist  and 
other  circles,  which  it  affected  not  at  all. 

Crawford  lost  patience,  but  the  Arch- 
bishop smiled  quietly,  and  said  that  he 
should  like  that  one  leader  preserved,  and 
the  editor  of  the  paper  thanked. 


22  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

The  leader  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
for  some  time  the  Bishop  of  London  had 
tried  to  restore  Baptism  to  its  rightful  place 
in  the  service,  and  it  was  that  sentence  which 
determined  the  editor  to  leave  the  article 
alone,  for  the  Bishop  of  London  would 
carry  the  public  with  him,  and  the  editor 
felt  that  he  himself  could  not  quote  a  single 
opinion  which  this  prelate  held  on  the 
Prayer  Book. 

For  a  few  days  newspaper  columns  were 
flooded  with  correspondence,  then  a  million- 
aire committed  suicide,  and  there  was  a  great 
railway  accident,  which  called  away  the  in- 
terest of  the  public,  so  that  the  word  "Arch- 
bishop" was  no  longer  kept  in  large  type 
for  daily  use,  and  posters  told  of  other 
things. 


CHAPTER  III 

AT  first  an  idea  had  got  abroad  that 
when  the  Archbishop  no  longer 
spoke  at  meetings,  his  day  would 
be  singularly  free  and  unoccupied,  but  he 
made  it  known  that  he  was  at  the  service  of 
his  people,  and  he  saw  every  one  who  wished 
to  see  him  if  he  could  help  that  person. 

In  the  earty  days  the  clergy  came  to  see 
him  in  order  to  tell  him  how  extremely  dif- 
ficult it  was  to  obey  the  Prayer  Book. 

"I  know,"  said  the  Archbishop  ingen- 
uously. "If  it  had  been  easy  it  would  have 
been  done  long  ago." 

One  day  a  middle-aged  country  vicar  with 
a  worn,  tired  face  came,  and  the  Archbishop 
expecting  the  usual  complaint,  was  sur- 
prised when  the  man  began  to  thank  him. 

23 


M  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

His  story  came  out  by  degrees,  for  he  was 
slow  of  speech  as  a  man  is  apt  to  be  who  sel- 
dom meets  his  equals. 

He  was  the  vicar  of  a  small  parish  miles 
from  a  station,  and  from  one  year's  end  to 
another  no  one  helped  or  cheered  him.  His 
parishioners  had  all  they  could  do  to  earn 
their  daily  bread;  incessant  toil  seemed  to 
have  taken  from  them  the  faculty  of  desir- 
ing any  spiritual  gifts. 

To  them  the  parson  meant  some  one  who 
cared  for  their  poor,  tired  bodies,  and  who 
gave  them  good  water  and  drainage,  as 
much  as  the  Steward  of  Mysteries  beyond 
their  ken. 

He  never  heard  any  one  else  preach,  and 
he  could  not  afford  to  take  a  London  paper, 
or  to  have  a  holiday.  So  it  was  no  wonder 
that  his  sermons  were  dull,  and  his  flock 
unspiritual.  Now  he  had  been  to  his  broth- 
er's funeral,  and  as  he  was  passing  through 
London  he  felt  that  he  must  thank  the 
Ai'chbishop  for  his  Pastoral,  for  it  was  the 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  25 

only  thing  in  all  these  years  which  made 
him  hope  that  he  had  not  failed  utterly. 

He  had  tried  to  obey  the  Prayer  Book. 
The  very  few  Baptisms  they  had  were  ad- 
ministered on  Sundays  during  service,  and 
he  had  always  had  Daily  Service. 

No  one  came  but  an  old  blind  woman. 

For  the  last  four  years  he  had  had  to  give 
up  the  church  school,  for  tithe  had  gone 
down,  and  there  was  no  one  else  to  help — 
but  he  was  keeping  his  Grace,  he  would  go 
on  to  Waterloo  Station. 

"No,"  said  the  Archbishop,  "you  will 
lunch  with  me,  it  is  one  o'clock." 

He  looked  at  the  worn,  shiny  clothes,  the 
trousers  baggy  at  the  knees,  with  a  feeling 
of  reverence,  and  his  genial  smile  set  his 
visitor  at  ease. 

All  through  luncheon  it  was  not  the 
Prayer  Book  of  which  they  talked,  but  of 
Oxford,  with  its  hundred  memories.  Why, 
it  was  nearly  twenty  years  since  any  one 
had  talked  to  the  lonely  man  of  Oxford,  and 


26  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

he  found  himself  laughing  in  a  most  un- 
wonted manner. 

The  motor  was  ordered,  and  the  Arch- 
bishop said  that  it  was  quite  easy  for  him  to 
drop  his  visitor  at  Waterloo.  He  said, 
moreover,  that  he  should  be  coming  near  his 
parish  in  the  autumn,  and  he  would  preach 
for  him  on  All  Saints'  Day  if  it  was  con- 
venient. 

The  colour  rushed  into  Mr.  Lester's  face, 
and  he  could  hardly  express  his  thanks.  No 
one  had  ever  offered  to  help  him  before,  and 
now  his  lonely  out-of-the-way  parish  was  to 
have  a  visit  from  the  Archbishop. 

"Why  did  you  do  it?"  asked  Crawford 
later,  during  the  half -hour's  talk  they  gener- 
ally got,  when  their  respective  positions 
were  ignored.  "It  is  six  miles  from  a  sta- 
tion, and  he  would  have  been  grateful  for 
a  much  lesser  light,  such  as  one  of  us." 

"He  is  signally  destitute  of  help,"  said 
the  Archbishop  gravely.  "There  is  no  need 
to  offer  to  preach  in   St.   Peter's,   Eaton 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  27 

Square,  but  various  causes  will  take  me  to 
obscure  country  parishes.  I  promised  Sir 
James  Bellingham  to-day  that  I  would  come 
down  to  Lessingway,  where  he  is  church- 
warden, and  is  giving  his  rector  rather  a  bad 
time." 

"I  guessed  that  he  came  to  complain." 

"Yes,  he  said  that  Jervis  was  starting  rit- 
ualistic innovations,  which  he,  as  a  staunch 
upholder  of  the  Established  Church,  did  not 
mean  to  allow  for  a  moment.  He  took  his 
stand  on  the  Prayer  Book,  and  at  this  point 
I  broke  in,  saying  that  I  was  very  glad  to 
hear  it,  for  I  wished  to  have  the  Prayer 
Book  obeyed,  and  that  I  should  lose  no  time 
in  arranging  a  Sundaj^  with  Mr.  Jervis, 
when  I  would  come  down  and  preach  on  the 
subject,  and  see  for  myself  what  were  the 
practices  in  the  parish." 

"You  did  not  ask  Sir  James  to  lunch- 
eon?" 

"No,  he  needs  no  encouragement,  and  he 
could  go  to  his  Club;   but  I  promised  to 


28  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

stay  with  him,  and  I  hope  to  leave  him 
a  wiser  man.  The  ignorance  about  the 
Prayer  Book  is  amazing.  Each  point  of 
which  he  complains  is  a  rule  of  the  Prayer 
Book.     But  we  must  have  patience." 

"Some  of  the  side  issues  of  your  scheme 
are  somewhat  surprising." 

"What  do  you  mean?" 

"Well,  there  is  an  enormous  decline  in 
preaching  and  a  great  advance  in  teaching, 
with  the  result  that  thinking  men  go  more 
to  church.  The  instruction  in  the  Catechism 
after  the  Second  Lesson  at  Evensong  is  tak- 
ing the  place  of  the  ordinary  sermon,  and 
last  week  at  a  socialistic  debate,  the  Church 
Catechism  was  largely  quoted.  Some  of  the 
leading  members  attend  St.  Petrox,  West- 
minster, and  the  Vicar  had  been  explaining 
the  end  of  the  duty  to  our  neighbour.  It  is 
a  common  taunt  to  say  that  the  Church  in- 
culcates keeping  a  man  in  that  state  of  life 
in  which  he  is  born,  and  it  was  a  study  to 
see  the  Socialists'  faces  as  Mr.  B.  dwelt  on 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  29 

the  words  "To  do  my  duty  in  that  state  of 
life  to  which  it  shall  please  God  to  call  me." 
You  can  picture  the  way  he  would  do  it,  and 
how  he  would  bring  in  all  that  the  Church 
had  done  to  raise  the  working-man,  from  the 
education  of  the  monasteries  to  the  schools 
of  the  National  Society.  Creedy  was  there, 
and  he  is  honest  to  the  core,  and  he  it  was 
who  reproduced  it  all  at  the  Debating  So- 
ciety. The  men  were  better  acquainted 
with  Oliver  Lodge's  Catechism  than  the 
Church  Catechism,  but  Creedy  had  his 
Prayer  Book,  and  read  through  the  duty  to 
one's  neighbour,  and  some  of  the  men  said 
that  they  could  not  beat  it  with  their  own 
ideas.  And  then  at  the  end  of  the  debate 
Pringle  got  up  and  said,  'A  revolution  is 
coming  in  London  as  sure  as  fate,  but 
whether  it  will  be  a  bloodless  revolution  or 
not  depends  on  whether  we  are  faithful  to 
our  duty  towards  God  and  our  duty  towards 
our  neighbour.'  " 
"Bravo,  Pringle!" 


30  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

"Yes,  but  these  things  are  the  exception. 
The  majority  of  parishes  in  the  country  are 
greatly  upset." 

"To  be  upset  may  lead  to  a  desirable  re- 
adjustment." 

"Or  to  some  of  the  particles  rolling  else- 
where." 

"If  they  roll  away  so  easily,  are  they 
worth  keeping?" 

There  was  silence  for  a  time,  then  Craw- 
ford said: 

"I  suppose  we  have  come  to  the  parting 
of  the  ways.  In  reality  people  are  begin- 
ning to  understand  that  the  negations  of  the 
Faith  are  not  its  central  life.  In  spite  of 
discussion  and  bitterness  we  are  harking 
back  to  what  is  catholic  and  primitive." 

"We  are,  indeed.  It  is  impossible  to 
guess  what  the  next  fifty  years  will  see. 
The  day  of  protesting  is  past.  Man  needs 
to-day  something  positive,  though  he  may 
not  know  it.  To-morrow  he  will  realise  his 
need." 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  31 


"And  it  is ?" 

"The  Catholic  Faith  is  this  that  we  wor- 
ship. Ah,  Crawford,  England  has  lost  the 
art  of  worship.  She  believes  in  one  God, 
but  she  does  not  worship  Him.  She  argues 
about  Him,  she  is  preached  to  about  Him, 
but  when  England  again  worships  our  evil 
days  will  be  past.  Think  of  the  time  when 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  coun- 
try, there  were  no  boys  gentle  or  simple  who 
did  not  sing  or  serve  at  the  Altar.  What  is 
the  service  of  the  Altar  to-day  to  the  boys 
of  our  country  squires?  Has  the  average 
public  schoolboy  any  realisation  of  the  Per- 
son of  our  Lord?  No,  religion  and  Chris- 
tianity are  thought  of  as  a  set  of  unpleasant 
duties." 

Silence  fell,  and  Crawford  puffed  away  at 
his  pipe,  his  thoughts  filled  with  the  mem- 
ory of  Sundays  in  Eton  Chapel,  while  the 
Archbishop  dreamt  of  the  days  when  Eng- 
land would  be  once  more  merry,  having  dis- 
covered in  the  Catholic  Faith  all  that  met 


32  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

her  needs,  and  finding  happiness  at  last 
through  seeking  the  Will  of  God. 

It  was  a  simple  method  which  had  taken 
long  to  be  discovered. 

But  as  a  rule  these  dreams  were  the 
brightest  side  of  the  picture,  for  no  one  hesi- 
tated to  bring  to  his  notice  all  the  drawbacks 
of  his  scheme. 

Organisation  had  become  so  deeply  en- 
grained in  the  life  of  many  parishes  that  it 
was  hard  to  say  when  it  was  taken  away 
what  would  remain. 

"We  had  hoped  so  much  from  our  sale  of 
work,"  said  one  lady,  "for  Mr.  Jones  has 
only  lately  been  appointed,  and  we  heard 
that  he  had  so  many  original  ideas.  Not 
that  we  have  raffles — we  always  set  our  face 
against  them — but  the  Irish  curate  started 
a  hat-trimming  competition  for  the  men, 
and  Mr.  Jones  did  wonders  at  Lexford. 
And  now  the  Bishop  wants  us  to  raise 
money  for  the  Church  by  systematic  alms- 
giving.    I   don't  know  what  parishes  are 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  33 

coming  to.  The  dissenters  will  have  it  all 
their  own  way." 

There  was  no  lack  of  correspondence  in 
the  newspapers,  over  which  Crawford  often 
shook  his  head. 

Would  the  two  years  go  by,  and  leave 
only  a  hopeless  disintegration  of  all  that  had 
meant  religion  to  so  many? 

Pleasant  Sunday  Afternoons  became 
the  sole  property  of  Non-conformity,  but 
strange  to  say  they  were  not  unduly 
crowded;  and  nothing  surprised  people 
more  than  the  fact  that  the  teaching  of  the 
Catechism  at  the  Sunday  Evening  Service 
in  every  Parish  Church  was  creating  an  in- 
terest in  religion  in  every  class  of  society. 

After  all,  there  was  a  science  in  theology 
which  the  ordinary  man  had  little  suspected, 
and  the  scientific  fact  that  difficulty  was  the 
soul's  fortune  appealed  to  the  higher  parts  of 
human  nature  in  a  way  that  the  popularizing 
of  religion  had  never  done.  But  all  real 
growth  is  silent,  and  dissatisfaction  clam- 
oured noisily  at  the  Archbishop's  door. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  Archbishop's  servants  were  often 
sorely  puzzled  as  to  how  to  an- 
nounce the  visitors  who  arrived  con- 
stantly, for  many  of  them  declined  to  give 
any  name,  and  it  was  difficult  to  know 
whether  to  class  them  as  "a  gentleman,"  or 
"a  lady,"  or  under  the  comprehensive  term 
of  "a  person." 

One  day  the  butler  made  a  fresh  depar- 
ture and  announced,  "Some  one  to  see  your 
Grace,"  and  met  with  the  immediate  reply: 

"Show  him  in." 

The  library  door  was  flung  open,  and 
some  one  entered  whose  appearance  was  in 
striking  contrast  to  the  beauty  and  stateli- 
ness  of  her  surroundings.  Shabbiness  of 
dress  could  go  no  further,  and  the  thin  face 
was  colourless. 

34 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  35 

"Will  you  sit  down,"  said  the  Archbishop, 
indicating  a  chair,  and  waiting  for  the  words 
which  did  not  come. 

"You  wanted  to  see  me?"  he  said  at  last 
in  his  kind  voice,  and  she  raised  her  eyes  to 
his — eyes  as  blue  as  a  child's. 

Then  she  dropped  her  gaze  and  clenched 
her  hands  tightly. 

"Oh,"  she  murmured,  "I  have  sinned  ex- 
ceedingly." 

None  of  his  visitors  hitherto  had  ever  be- 
gun like  this,  and  for  a  moment  he  was  silent, 
then  he  said  gently: 

"God  is  very  merciful." 

"Yes,"  she  answered,  "I  know  it.  I 
should  like  to  tell  you." 

"Tell  nie,"  he  answered  gravely. 

"Things  had  come  to  an  end,"  she  went 
on  quickly.  "I  tried  to  get  work,  but  no 
one  wanted  me.  I  am  not  clever,  and  I  am 
getting  old ;  no  one  wants  you  when  you  are 
not  young.  .  .  .  And  .  .  .  there  .  .  .  was 
.  .  .  nothing  more  to  sell.  .  .  .  Then  .  .  . 


36  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

I  was  walking  down  a  street,  and  there  was 
the  smell  of  a  baker's  shop,  and  I  looked 
in " 

"Yes?" 

"And  the  woman  was  not  looking, 
and " 

"Yes?" 

"I  took  a  loaf." 

The  ticking  of  the  clock  became  suddenly 
audible;  or  was  it  the  throbbing  of  all  the 
hearts  all  over  the  world  in  unbearable  pain? 

The  Archbishop  was  about  to  speak  when 
the  woman  went  on: 

"After  I  had  eaten  it,  I  realised  what  I 

had  done,  I,  brought  up  a ,  I  had  done 

this  terrible  thing.  I  wandered  on  and  on, 
and  up  and  down,  but  there  was  no  hope  of 
paying  for  what  I  had  taken,  and  I  grew 
desperate.     Then " 

The  Archbishop's  face  was  covered  with 
his  hand,  and  he  repeated  gently: 

"God  is  very  merciful." 

"I  started  for  the  river,"  said  the  woman 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  37 

quickly.  "I  thought  I  would  jump  in  and 
drown  myself.  Oh,  it  was  awful!  The 
river  called  me.  I  felt  I  must  go.  I  think 
I  began  to  run.  Then  suddenly  I  heard  a 
church  bell." 

"Yes?" 

"And  brought  up  as  I  have  been,  one  does 
not  lightly  disregard  a  church  bell,  so  I  went 
in,  and  there  were  just  a  few  people  there, 
with  a  clergyman  explaining  the  Prayer 
Book.  He  said  that  the  Archbishop  wished 
the  Prayer  Book  to  be  understood,  and  to- 
day he  had  come  to  that  part  about  the  for- 
giveness of  sins.  I  never  knew  before  that 
it  was  like  that.  I  thought  that  I  was  lost 
eternally,  but  he  made  it  all  plain  about  re- 
pentance and  God  conveying  pardon  to  us, 
and  .  .  .  I  .  .  .  began  to  hope." 

The  weak  voice  faltered  for  a  moment, 
and  then  went  on: 

"When  the  others  went  away  I  stopped, 
and  he  came  up,  and  I  asked  if  it  meant  any 
one  as  bad  as  me  .  .  .  and  then  he  helped 


38  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

me  to  confess  it  all  to  God,  and  afterwards 
he  gave  me  Absolution.  .  .  .  The  words 
ring  in  my  mind  now.  'By  His  Authority 
I  absolve  thee  from  all  thy  sins.'  I  am  not 
lost  eternally,  and  .  .  .  and  ...  I  thank 
and  bless  you." 

The  tightness  in  the  Archbishop's  throat 
kept  him  silent  for  a  moment.  It  was  as  if 
he  had  suddenly  reached  the  centre  of  life, 
and  felt  the  passionate  beat  of  human  hearts. 

She  sat  with  drooping  head,  and  relaxed 
hands,  feeling  that  her  companion  had  never 
before  come  across  sin  so  deep. 

She  would  go  now — out  from  this  beauti- 
ful room,  and  pace  once  more  up  and  down 
the  streets  of  the  city  which  had  no  place 
for  her  in  it.  She  tried  to  rise,  and  then 
the  Archbishop  spoke  quickly: 

"When  did  you  last  have  any  food?" 

"Yesterday,"  she  faltered. 

He  sprang  up  and  rang  the  bell. 

"Don't  talk  just  now,"  he  said  gently. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  39 

"Just  lean  back  and  rest.  There,  that  is 
better." 

"God  is  very  merciful,"  she  whispered, 
but  the  words  were  inaudible. 

The  next  thing  that  she  knew  was  that  a 
tray  was  brought  in  containing  many  things, 
tea  and  bread-and-butter,  and  a  boiled  egg', 
there  was  shining  silver  and  delicate  china 
— she  was  dreaming !  No,  there  was  the  lit- 
tle tea-set,  and  tea  in  the  hay-field,  and  a 
child's  happy  laughter.  How  did  the  words 
go? 

Something  about  a  field  of  new-mown 
hay,  she  could  say  it  now  all  through  if  she 
could  only  remember  how  it  began. 

"Drink  this,  you  will  feel  better." 

Why,  it  was  not  the  old  rectory  or  the 
hayfield  after  all,  and  the  little  boy  had 
gone. 

"That  is  right,"  said  the  Archbishop  at 
last.     "Now  I  am  going  to  have  a  cup  of 


40  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

tea  too,  and  you  must  not  talk  till  you  have 
finished  your  egg.^' 

When  at  last  the  meal  was  over,  she  put 
down  her  cup  with  a  smile. 

"Thank  you,  Johnny,"  she  said  simply. 

The  old  childish  name,  never  heard  since 
his  schoolboy  days,  made  him  start,  and 
he  said:  "You  know  me!  Who  are 
you?" 

"Have  you  forgotten  Miss  Fanny?"  she 
asked. 

"Oh,  no,"  he  cried,  with  something  like  a 
sob,  "you  are  not  Miss  Fanny?" 

She  mistook  him,  and  rose  to  her  feet. 

"I  should  not  have  told  you,"  she  said, 
"after  I  had  fallen  so  low." 

"You  should  have  told  me  long  ago,"  he 
said,  "and  let  me  help  you,  as  you  helped 
me  when  I  was  a  child." 

She  sat  down  again  and  whispered: 

"So  you  remember?" 

"Dear  Miss  Fanny,  my  earliest  memories 
are  of  you.     Do  you  remember  how  I  came 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  41 

to  the  rectory  for  lessons,  and  your  pride 
over  my  first  verse?" 

"About  a  hayfield.  I  cannot  remember 
how  it  begins." 

The  Archbishop  repeated: 

"Patiently  dear  doggie  sits 
Waiting  for  some  little  bits. 
He  likes  bread  and  milk  as  well 
As  the  rest  do,  I  can  tell. 
Do  not  mind,  my  doggie  dear. 
You  shall  have  them,  never  fear. 
Then  we  will  go  out  and  play 
In  a  field  of  new-mown  hay." 

"That  has  worried  me  lately,"  said  Miss 
Fanny.  "The  sound  got  into  the  river,  but 
I  could  not  remember  it  all." 

"Tell  me,"  he  said,  "how  things  happened. 
Your  father?" 

"He  failed  much  the  last  few  years,"  she 
said,  "and  I  spent  a  great  deal  on  getting 
the  duty  done.  He  would  have  been  heart- 
broken anywhere  else.  He  died  rector  of 
the  parish." 


42  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

"And  then?" 

"Well,  there  was  only  I,  and  most  of  the 
money  went  in  dilapidations.  For  a  time 
I  got  daily  teaching,  but  I  was  not  up  to  the 
requirements  of  to-day.  Then  I  became  a 
companion,  and  my  old  ladies  died  at  last. 
I  di'ifted  to  London — it  is  the  land  of  the 
homeless — you  know  the  rest." 

"God  forgive  me,"  cried  the  Archbishop. 
"Why  did  you  not  write  to  me?" 

"I  could  not  beg,"  she  said  simply. 

Something  had  to  be  done,  and  after  a 
time  he  rang  the  bell. 

"The  motor  at  once,"  he  said.  "No,  I 
will  have  a  taxi." 

"You  must  not  trouble  about  me,"  said 
Miss  Fanny,  rising. 

"I  am  going  to  take  you  to  a  friend  of 
mine,  where  you  shall  stay  till  you  are  well 
again." 

The  tears  rushed  to  her  eyes. 

"Not  yet,"  she  faltered.  "There  is  one 
thing  I  must  do  first.     I  must  go  to  the 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  43 

bread-shop  and  tell  them  I  cannot  pay  them 

yet." 

"For  the  love  of  the  old  days  in  the  hay- 
field  you  must  let  me  pay  them,"  he  said, 
and  he  almost  added  that  by  his  authority  as 
Ai'chbishop  he  dispensed  her  from  this  act 
of  restitution,  but  he  cared  for  her  too  much 
to  dare  it. 

They  went  together  in  the  taxi-cab  slowly 
down  the  street  where  she  was  to  identify 
the  shop,  and  alone  she  went  in  and  paid 
the  price.  Then  he  took  her  to  a  house 
where  they  were  received  by  a  lady  whose 
face  seemed  to  bear  the  mark  of  a  life  lived 
in  the  sunshine  of  God's  Presence. 

"I  have  brought  you  a  friend  to  nurse  and 
care  for,"  said  the  Archbishop,  and  they 
were  only  just  in  time  to  catch  Miss  Fanny 
as  she  fainted  away. 

Often  in  the  old  days  had  she  carried  him, 
a  happy  laughing  child,  from  the  Hall  to 
the  rectory,  over  the  daisied  lawn;  now  he 
carried  her  silently  up  the  staircase  to  the 


44  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

first  rest  and  love  she  had  known  for  many 
days. 

•  ••••• 

That  evening  as  they  sat  at  dinner,  Craw- 
ford was  called  away  to  the  telephone. 

On  his  return  he  said: 

"It  was  a  message  to  your  Grace  that 
some  one  will  not  live  through  the  night.  I 
made  them  repeat  the  name,  but  I  could  hear 
nothing  but  'Miss  Fanny.'  They  said  you 
would  understand." 

"Yes,"  said  the  Archbishop,  laying  down 
his  knife  and  fork,  "I  will  go  at  once." 

"Will  you  not  finish  dinner?"  said  Craw- 
ford. 

"No,  I  have  had  enough.  Will  you  come 
with  me?  I  may  want  to  send  you  to  St. 
Petrox.     Order  a  taxi  at  once." 

A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  the  Archbishop 
was  speaking  to  a  doctor  in  the  house  where 
Miss  Fanny  lay  dying. 

There  was  nothing  that  could  be  done ;  he 
had   tried   all   possible   remedies;    she   was 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  45 

literally  worn  out,  and  the  heart  could  do 
no  more. 

So  the  Archbishop  went  quietly  up  the 
stairs  while  the  chaplain  sped  on  his  errand, 
that  the  parting  soul  should  not  go  on  its 
journey  unhouselled. 

Miss  Fanny  looked  more  like  her  old  self 
than  she  had  done  in  the  morning.  Her 
hair,  released  from  any  fastening,  had  fallen 
back  into  the  wave  he  remembered  so  well, 
and  the  blue  eyes  had  the  clearness  of  her 
girlhood. 

But  her  mind  was  drifting,  and  the  feeble 
words  were  of  the  old  days,  and  he  saw  the 
roses  and  honey-suckles  over  the  rectory 
porch. 

"He  can  say  it,"  she  whispered. 
"Johnny  can  say  the  whole  verse.  Oh,  how 
does  it  begin?" 

Again  the  Archbishop  repeated  the  child- 
ish verse,  and  she  seemed  to  sleep  for  a 
time. 

When  her  eyes  opened  again  there  was 


46  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

complete  consciousness  in  her  gaze,  as  he 
knelt  down  and  prayed. 

"I  wish  I  could  remember  it  all,"  she  said 
presently.  "  'By  His  Authority  ...  I 
.  .  .  absolve  thee.' " 

Then  very  clearly  the  Archbishop  said: 

"Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Who  hath  left 
power  to  His  Church  to  absolve  all  sinners 
who  truly  repent  and  believe  in  Him,  of  His 
great  mercy  forgive  thee  thine  offences: 
And  by  His  Authority,  committed  to  me,  I 
absolve  thee  from  all  thy  sins,  in  the  Name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.     Amen." 

The  Archbishop  never  forgot  the  look  on 
Miss  Fanny's  face  as  his  voice  ceased,  and 
he  prepared  to  give  her  her  last  Communion. 

Then  came  a  long  silence  as  she  grew 
weaker,  but  once  more  her  lips  moved,  and 
he  bent  over  her  to  catch  the  feeble  whisper. 

"I  .  .  .  am  .  .  .  very  .  .  .  happy." 

Then  as  he  commended  her  soul  into  the 
Hands  of  a  merciful  Saviour,  she  passed 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  47 

away  from  the  great  city  which  had  no  place 
for  her  to  the  Great  Love  which  never  fails, 
and  into  her  face  came  the  look  of  radiant 
happiness  dimly  foreshadowed  long  ago  in 
the  summer  days  of  hay-time  and  honey- 
suckle. 


CHAPTER  V 

AMONG  the  piles  of  letters  that  ar- 
rived in  Easter  week,  the  Arch- 
bishop kept  a  few  which  he  an- 
swered himself  at  once. 
This  was  the  first: 

"My  Lord  Archbishop. — I  feel  that  I 
must  write  to  tell  your  Grace  what  has  hap- 
pened. Till  this  year  I  acquiesced  in  the 
idea  that  it  was  impossible  really  to  fast  dur- 
ing the  forty  days  of  Lent,  and  I  imagined 
that  I  did  all  that  was  needful  by  abstaining 
from  meat  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays, 
knocking  off  tobacco,  and  a  few  other 
things.  But  your  desire  that  the  Prayer 
Book  should  be  obeyed  showed  me  that  I 
had  no  more  right  to  put  my  own  ideas  on 
fasting  in   the   place   of  the  rules   of  the 

48 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  49 

Prayer  Book  than  I  had  to  reason  that 
parochial  visitation  could  take  the  place  of 
the  Daily  Offices.  So  I  just  took  fasting 
to  mean  what  it  used  to  mean — and  I  had 
one  meal  a  day.  Of  course  at  first  it  was 
not  easy,  but  I  got  along  all  right.  That 
was  not  the  point  I  meant  to  dwell  upon — 
it  was  the  other  side,  the  spiritual  side. 
There  w^ere  things  I  had  never  guessed  at 
before — the  losing  of  one  life  to  find  another 
infinitely  better  and  higher.  Hitherto  I 
had  been  content  to  pass  over  that  verse 
about  'this  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer 
and  fasting,'  with  the  criticism  that  it  was 
thought  to  be  interpolated.  Now  I  know 
what  it  means.  It  is  a  reality.  Fasting 
opens  a  gate  to  prayer  which  in  all  these 
years  I  have  not  known.  Such  revelations 
are  not  to  be  talked  about,  but  I  thought  I 
might  tell  your  Grace,  for  had  it  not  been 
for  your  Pastoral  I  might  have  gone  on  to 
the  end  of  my  life  with  a  conventional  Lent, 
which  left  me  little  altered  and  my  people 


50  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

not  at  all.  I  used  to  think  that  special 
preachers  and  extra  services  would  effect 
all  that  was  needful.  Now  I  can  thankfully 
say  that  the  chief  difficulties  in  the  parish 
are  melting  away  like  snow  in  summer.  To 
use  the  French  phrase,  it  seems  that  when 
we  get  tete-a-tete  with  God,  we  can  trust 
Him  to  do  everything.  For  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  physically  weak,  perhaps  I  may 
say  that  I  am  not  the  most  robust  of  men. 
But  I  have  proved  by  experience  that  we 
over-estimate  the  necessity  of  food  in  all  sea- 
sons, and  overlook  the  positive  advantages 
of  a  real  fast.     My  health  has  not  suffered." 

The  Archbishop  read  on  to  the  end,  and 
when  Crawford  came  in  he  said,  "My  clergy 
put  me  to  shame  in  every  direction.  Do 
you  remember  a  Cowley  Father  saying  that 
obedience  consisted  in  doing  what  you  were 
told,  not  in  finding  out  a  hundred  reasons 
for  not  doing  it?    It  is  remarkable  how  the 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  51 

sight  of  obedience  humbles  those  who  see  it." 

The  next  letter  was  written  feebly  in  pen- 
cil, and  dated  from  the  Hostel  of  St.  Luke. 

It  ran: — "I  must  apologise  for  my  writ- 
ing, but  I  am  just  getting  over  an  operation 
made  necessary  by  worry  and  overwork. 
My  husband  has  a  parish  where  there  were 
few  helpers,  so  I  had  the  G.  F.  S.  and 
Mothers'  Union  and  other  things  to  manage 
by  myself.  We  have  six  children,  and  can 
only  keep  one  servant,  so  there  was  not  much 
time.  I  tried  not  to  let  things  down;  my 
predecessor  had  been  strong  and  done  so 
-much.  But  after  the  Archbishop's  letter 
came  out,  my  husband  altered  everything, 
and  now,  when  I  go  back,  I  can  have  a  little 
rest,  and  the  surgeon  here  thinks  that  I  shall 
really  live  and  get  well.  It  seems  so  won- 
derful." 

"God  bless  her,"  murmured  the  Arch- 
bishop. 

The  third  letter  was  very  different. 


Sa  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

"To  His  Grace  the  Loed  Archbishop 
OF  Canterbury. 

"SiR^ — I  am  an  old  man  and  a  soldier, 
and  I  have  never  written  to  a  Bishop  in  my 
life,  but  now  something  has  happened.  I 
was  brought  up  in  Scotland,  a  Presbyterian, 
but  since  my  marriage  I  have  always  re- 
ceived the  Holy  Communion  here  in  the 
Parish  Church.  Last  week  in  talking  to  the 
Rector  I  said  I  had  never  been  confirmed, 
and  then  he  said  that  unless  I  were  con- 
firmed, or  intended  to  be,  he  could  not  ad- 
minister the  Holy  Communion  to  me.  I 
was  very  angry.  Then  he  showed  me  the 
rule  in  the  Prayer  Book :  'There  shall  none 
be  admitted  to  the  Holy  Communion  until 
such  time  as  he  be  confirmed,  or  be  ready  and 
desirous  to  be  confirmed.'  Now  what  I  ask 
is,  why  were  we  never  told  of  these  rules  be- 
fore ?  Do  you  think,  sir,  that  an  Army  man 
is  going  to  disobey  orders?  The  upshot  of 
it  is  that  I  am  learning  the  Catechism 
(knowing  only  the  Shorter  Catechism)  with 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  53 

a  view  to  being  confirmed.  You  will  know 
my  name.  Some  say  I  blundered  in  South 
Africa,  none  can  say  that  I  ever  disobeyed 
orders;  and  let  me,  as  an  old  man,  give  you 
a  word  of  advice  (though  from  what  I  hear, 
you  hardly  need  it)  :  Tell  your  officers  to 
make  their  rules  plain,  and  to  let  the  people 
know  they  are  meant  to  be  obeyed,  then  men 
will  respect  the  Chm'ch  more  than  they  do. 
There  is  an  Army  rule  that  no  soldier  who 
has  committed  suicide  has  military  honours 
at  his  funeral,  and  the  way  that  it  is  kept 
is  not  by  making  exceptions. — Beheve  me  to 
be,  Your  obedient  servant," 

And  then  came  the  name  of  an  old  Gen- 
eral, known  to  the  whole  world  for  gallantry 
and  valour. 

The  last  letter  came  from  the  Vicar  of  a 
busy  town  parish. 

*'YouR  Grace^ — I  feel  that  I  may  write 
fully,  for  I  am  in  gi'eat  trouble.  I  obeyed 
your  request,  as  I  believe  all  clergy  of  every 


54  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

shade  of  opinion  have  done  throughout  the 
country,  and  I  dropped  our  various  organi- 
sations and  left  only  the  Church.  The  ac- 
tivity in  this  parish  had  been  great.  We 
had  Church  Lads  Brigade,  C.E.M.S.  Clubs 
for  every  age  and  class,  social  evenings, 
societies,  guilds.  The  whole  day  was  oc- 
cupied, and  we  clergy  rushed  from  one 
thing  to  another,  with  little  time  to  think. 
We  had  a  week-night  service,  but  few  other 
services  except  on  Sundays  and  Holy  Days. 
Now  we  have  daily  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer,  and  a  Celebration  of  Holy  Com- 
munion on  Thursdays.  But — how  can  I 
make  you  understand  it?  In  a  sense,  now 
that  all  the  organisations  are  gone,  I  feel 
as  if  nothing  is  left.  Honestly  I  thought  I 
was  doing  my  duty  to  my  parish  by  all  these 
things,  and  I  worked  hard.  When  I  was 
first  ordained,  my  Vicar  laid  stress  on  all 
these  things,  and  no  one  taught  me  anything 
else.  Now  there  is  plenty  of  leisure,  and 
your  Pastoral  lays  stress  on  prayer,  but  (it 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  55 

sounds  a  terrible  thing  to  say)  no  one  ever 
taught  me  to  pray  in  the  way  I  see  now 
that  one  ought  to  pray.  It  is  the  same  with 
thinking.  There  is  plenty  of  time  now  to 
think,  but  it  is  an  art  not  learnt  in  a  day 
when  the  rush  of  a  lifetime  has  driven  it 
out.  You  will  be  shocked  and  astonished, 
but  I  have  only  told  you  the  truth.  It 
seems  to  me  now  that  to  be  a  clergj^man  is  a 
great  deal  more  than  I  used  to  think.  The 
only  thing  I  can  do  is  to  give  up  my  living. 
But  what  can  I  do?  I  am  too  old  to  start 
other  work,  even  if  I  had  any  special  qualifi- 
cations. In  the  old  rush  and  hurry  I  never 
saw  how  terribly  I  fell  short.  I  almost 
came  to  see  your  Grace,  but  you  can  have 
no  time  to  deal  with  such  questions.  For- 
give my  writing.  I  do  not  know  my  Bishop 
personally,  and  I  feared  he  would  be  sur- 
prised if  I  mentioned  such  subjects.  .  .  ." 

"Crawford,"   said   the  Archbishop   sud- 
denly, "I  want  to  send  you  to  C for 


56  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

a  few  days  to  look  after  the  parish,  while  the 
Vicar  comes  to  stay  here." 

And  the  result  of  that  visit  was  that  the 
Vicar  did  not  resign  his  living. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ENGLAND  had  never  looked  more 
beautiful  than  it  was  this  April,  with 
its  wealth  of  flowering  trees  and  its 
days  of  cloudless  beauty  succeeding  each 
other,  almost  as  if  the  clouds  had  become  a 
thing  of  the  past.  In  the  gardens  lilacs, 
rhododendrons,  and  laburnums  formed  a 
rare  feast  of  colour,  while  the  blossom  in  the 
orchards  and  on  every  fruit  tree  shimmered 
gloriously  against  the  azure  sky. 

But  nothing  could  equal  the  delicate 
green  of  the  trees,  as  yet  untouched  by  dust 
or  storm  or  scorching  suns. 

Crawford,  enjoying  a  week's  holiday  with 
some  friends,  lay  back  in  a  deck  chair,  look- 
ing up  at  the  perfect  scene. 

"Well,"  he  said  at  last,  "this  gives  one 
some  idea  of  Paradise." 

57 


58  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

"Yes,"  said  his  hostess,  then  there  was  a 
long  silence.  "You  know  what  it  is,"  she 
said  at  last,  as  if  in  continuation  of  some- 
thing that  had  gone  before,  "to  feel  that 
something  is  part  of  a  perfect  whole,  but 
then  comes  in  the  element  that  spoils  it,  and 
your  Paradise  grows  earthly." 

"I  am  the  most  prosaic  of  men,  so  you 
must  not  mind  my  saying  that  I  do  not  quite 
understand.  Are  you  referring  to  that 
much  quoted,  unpoetic  line: 

"'And  only  man  is  vile?*" 

"No,  I  was  thinking  of  something  quite 
different.  Shall  I  explain?  You  know  we 
are  half  the  year  here,  and  half  the  year  in 
Warwick  Square,  our  town  house.  Now 
there  is  no  comparison  with  the  beauty  we 
have  here  and  what  is  found  in  London. 
The  park  is  lovely,  but  it  does  not  come  near 
what  we  are  looking  at  now." 

As  she  paused  for  a  moment,  Crawford 
made  a  sound  of  assent. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  59 

"Then  Sunday  comes,"  she  went  on  in  her 
pleasant  voice,  "and  one  goes  to  church,  and 
all  the  time  I  am  conscious  that  Mr.  Foster 
is  anxious  to  please  us  and  not  to  offend  the 
farmers ;  and  the  blue  sky  and  the  trees  you 
can  see  through  the  open  window  seem  really 
more  inspiring  than  the  manner  in  which 
Matins  is  rendered  with  a  wheezy  harmo- 
nium and  some  small  boys  who  are  made  to 
sing  what  is  beyond  their  powers." 

"My  dear  critic,  why  do  you  not  give  a 
new  harmonium  and  take  the  choir  in 
hand?" 

"All  harmoniums  are  wheezy,  and  those 
who  are  here  all  the  year  must  manage 
things.  Now  there  is  the  other  side  of  the 
picture.  From  Warwick  Square  we  soon 
cross  Vauxhall  Bridge  Road,  and  find  our- 
selves in  a  dear,  slummy  street  leading  to  St. 
Petrox." 

He  nodded  in  silence. 

"There  is  nothing  that  can  possibly  be 
considered  beautiful.    Ragged  children  play 


60  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

on  the  pavement.  Men  with  barrows  of 
vegetables  stand  about  talking  to  women, 
even  more  unkempt  than  themselves.  Then 
there  comes  a  flash  of  red  as  a  Boys'  Home 
marches  by  to  church,  and  from  every  turn- 
ing and  alley  people  come  on  their  way  to 
church — poor,  lame  men,  happy  working- 
boys,  gentlemen  and  ladies,  nurses,  men  of 
every  rank  and  age.  Then  we  go  into 
church,  and  we  forget  that  we  know  the 
clergy.     There  is  a  huge  Rood  Screen " 

"I  know,"  said  Crawford. 

"Well,  every  one  is  just  there,  simply  and 
solely  to  worship  God.  It  sounds  simple. 
Of  course  when  we  go  to  church,  we  always 
go  to  worship  God,  but  we  don't  always  do 
it,  but  there  we  can  just  gather  up  all  the 
things  we  have  hoped  and  wanted  and  meant 
.  .  .  and  .  .  .  leave  them." 

On  the  short  green  grass  two  wagtails 
were  running  in  the  sunshine,  and  the  chiff- 
chaff  was  singing  his  perpetual  note  in  a 
tree  close  by,  but  Crawford  kept  silence. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  61 

"You  remember  the  time  of  the  war,"  she 
went  on  in  a  lower  voice,  "when  Ted  was 
womided  and  Dick  fell  ill.  There  came  a 
Sunday  morning  when  the  nurse  said  that  I 
might  safely  leave  Dick,  and  I  went  to  St. 
Petrox.  Do  you  know  the  two  verses  they 
so  often  sing  at  the  time  of  Commun- 
ion?" 

"I  think  not." 

She  repeated  very  quietly: 

"Father,  see  Thy  children  bending  at  Thy  Throne, 
Pleading  here  the  Passion  of  Thine  only  Son, 
Pleading  here  before  Thee  all  His  dying  Love, 
As  He  pleads  it  ever  in  the  Courts  above. 
Not  for  our  wants  only  we  this  Offering  plead. 
But  for  all  Thy  children  who  Thy  mercy  need, 
Bless  Thy  faithful  people,  win  Thy  wandering  sheep. 
Keep  the  souls  departed  who  in  Jesus  sleep." 

"It  seemed  then,"  she  went  on  reverently, 
"as  if  one  knew  His  love  for  our  dear  ones, 
whether  in  life  or  death.  Nothing  really 
mattered  but  God.  .  .  .  And  Dick  got  well, 
and  Ted  came  home." 


6^  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

Birds  might  sing  with  ecstatic  joy  of  ex- 
istence, but  Crawford  kept  silence. 

"And  afterwards  I  thought,"  she  said, 
looking  across  the  garden,  "what  it  would 
be  if  it  were  like  that  everywhere;  if  the 
Church  in  the  country  brought  things  home 
to  the  people  in  the  same  way,  for,  of  course, 
the  Truth  must  be  the  same  everywhere. 
And  since  your  Archbishop's  move,  there  is 
a  beginning  in  that  direction,  and  even  the 
farmers  are  getting  to  see  that  the  Church 
means  something  more  than  Mr.  Foster's 
endeavour  to  carry  out  what  Ted  and  I 
want,  and  we  are  beginning  to  study  the 
Prayer  Book." 

"What  about  the  wheezy  harmonium  and 
incompetent  choir?" 

"We  shall  not  notice  them  when  the  wor- 
ship of  God  is  made  the  central  fact. 
Didn't  you  see,  only  you  men  always  need 
so  much  explanation,  that  I  was  talking  of 
what  used  to  be?  Now,  here  comes  Mr. 
Foster,  and  I  have  told  him  that  I  am  sure 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  63 

you  will  preach  for  him.  Every  one  knows 
you  are  the  Archbishop's  chaplain,  and  we 
all  have  a  regard  for  authority.  Show  them, 
as  you  can  show  them,  all  that  a  Sung 
Eucharist  can  be,  and  Mr.  Foster  is  pre- 
pared to  start  it  at  once.  Ted,  dear  boy 
that  he  is,  has  given  up  going  to  Scotland 
this  summer,  and  we  shall  have  a  house  party 
of  people  used  to  St.  Petrox  to  fill  the 
Church  and  give  the  service  a  fair  start. 
How  I  have  talked,  but  you  encouraged  me 
to  run  on." 


CHAPTER  VII 

CRAWFORD'S  sister  was  in  town, 
having  recently  returned  from  Can- 
ada, and  when  Crawford  asked  for 
a  few  hours  off  in  order  that  he  might  take 
her  to  luncheon  somewhere,  the  Ai'chbishop 
at  once  bade  him  to  invite  her. 

"After  luncheon  you  will  talk  more  at 
your  ease  in  your  own  study,"  he  said. 
"Order  tea  when  you  like.     I  shall  be  out." 

The  brother  and  sister  took  stock  of  each 
other  after  a  separation  of  some  years,  and 
she  wondered  less  at  the  points  in  which  he 
had  developed  than  the  points  in  which  he 
was  the  same,  for  life  had  brought  so  many 
changes  that  permanence  seemed  the  greater 
marvel. 

There  was  much  news  to  tell  and  hear 
when  they  were  alone,  and  it  was  not  for 

64 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  65 

some  time  that  she  spoke  of  anything  but 
the  family  and  the  life  in  Canada. 

Then,  as  they  sat  at  tea,  the  old  confi- 
dence of  brother  and  sister  came  back,  and 
she  spoke  freely. 

"I  have  just  come  from  Eleanor's,"  she 
said.  "They  are  a  most  happy  family 
party,  and  the  more  I  see  of  John  the  more 
I  like  him,  but  some  things  surprised  me." 

"AVhat  things?" 

"Well,  when  it  came  to  Sunday,  Jim  and 
I  got  up  early  to  go  to  eight  o'clock  Celebra- 
tion. We  are  so  far  from  a  church  in  Al- 
berta, and  it  is  wonderful  to  find  it  all  so 
near  at  home." 

Her  brother  nodded,  and  she  went  on: 

"We  found  not  only  John  and  Eleanor 
in  the  hall  waiting  for  us,  but  the  three  chil- 
dren— Tom,  in  his  first  year  at  Eton, 
Bobby,  a  boy  in  knickerbockers,  and  EUie. 
I  supposed  they  were  going  to  walk  to 
church  with  us,  but  no,  they  are  all  con- 
firmed,  and  they  came  as   communicants. 


66  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

Not  only  that,  but  as  we  walked  down  the 
village,  cottagers  came  out,  with  little  girls 
in  white  frocks,  and  boys  the  age  of  Bobby. 
When  I  left  England,  we  should  have  found 
about  half-a-dozen  people  in  church,  now  the 
church  seemed  half  full.  I  think  Jim  was 
shocked  at  first,  but  the  children  were  all  so 
reverent,  and  seemed  so  thoroughly  to  enter 
into  the  service  that  he  said  he  could  make 
no  objection.  At  first  it  seemed  almost 
wrong  to  bring  down  such  solemn  mysteries 
to  the  comprehension  of  children." 

*'I  expect,  Ethel,  that  what  they  did  was 
to  let  the  children  know  that  our  Lord  was 
there,  and  they  just  worshipped  Him." 

"Well,  it  seemed  something  like  that,  but 
it  is  very  wonderful." 

"It  is  wonderful." 

"And  your  Archbishop  has  done  all  this?" 

"What  the  Archbishop  has  done  is  to  call 
attention  to  what  the  Prayer  Book  says  on 
the  matter.  *Ye  are  to  take  care  that  this 
child  be  brought  to  the  Bishop,  to  be  con- 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  67 

firmed  by  him  so  soon  as  he  can  say  the 
Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  is  fur- 
ther instructed  in  the  Church  Catechism  set 
forth  for  that  purpose." 

"But  do  you  think  it  means  that?" 
"If  we  are  to  suppose  that  the  Prayer 
Book  does  not  mean  what  it  says,  where  shall 
we  stop?" 

"Still,  think  of  our  days.  I  was  eighteen 
when  I  was  confirmed  and  you  were  sixteen 
or  seventeen." 

"Yes,  but  I  could  find  several  schoolfel- 
lows to  back  me  up  in  saying  that  had  we 
been  taught  in  early  boyhood  the  meaning 
of  Sacramental  Grace,  and  had  we  gained 
it  for  ourselves  as  constant  communicants, 
we  should  not  have  had  to  deplore  much  that 
has  marred  our  lives." 

"Do  Tom  and  Bobby  think  of  this?" 
"I   hope  not.     It  seems  to  me  that  in 
scores   of   cases,   these   child-communicants 
will  grow  up  without  ever  experiencing  the 


68  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

bitter  fires  through  which  we  went,  from  the 
very  fact  that  Grace  is  so  strong  within 
them.  Surely  a  child  of  ten  or  twelve  is 
nearer  the  Purity  of  our  Lord  than  the 
average  boy  of  sixteen." 

"Perhaps.  There  was  something  like 
that  in  a  hymn  which  they  sang  at  the  end 
of  the  service  at  Mallams.  Every  one 
seemed  to  know  it  by  heart.  I  can  remem- 
ber a  few  lines,  'Nature  cannot  hold  Thee, 
Heaven  is  all  too  straight,'  then  something 
about  the  hearts  of  children  holding  what 
worlds  cannot;  and  to  hear  them  singing  it, 
and  to  see  their  innocent  faces  made  me  feel 
rather  bad;  but  a  few  hours  later  our  chil- 
dren were  full  of  fun  and  spirits." 

"Yes,  but  fun  and  spirits  are  quite  right. 
We  must  lose  the  idea  that  religion  means 
respectability  and  middle-age.  That  is 
where  we  have  gone  astray.  Honestly,  I 
am  not  whole-heartedly  on  this  scheme  of 
the  Archbishop's,  but  in  this  point  I  agree 
with  him  and  the  Prayer  Book  thoroughly. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  69 

The  children  have  roused  up  the  parents. 
Those  villagers  would  not  have  gone  a  few 
years  ago.  By  degrees  it  will  seem  an  im- 
possibility for  a  Churchman  not  to  be  a  com- 
municant. Think,  especially  with  boys, 
how  teachable  and  devout  they  are  to  the  age 
of  thirteen.  By  deferring  Confirmation  so 
long  we  have  lost  our  hold  of  the  children. 
If  they  form  the  habit  of  Communion  while 
they  live  at  home,  they  will  not  lose  it  later 
— ^we  must  not  keep  the  children  from  their 
Lord." 

"I  did  not  mean  that,"  said  his  sister 
quickly. 

"Yet  it  bears  that  interpretation.  If  you 
are  in  London  on  Sunday  you  will  see  won- 
derful sights  before  eight  in  the  morning. 
Not  only  delightful  little  girls  and  sturdy 
boys  going  with  their  parents  to  west-end 
churches,  but  poor  children,  too  young  to 
think  much  of  their  shabbiness,  thronging 
our  altars.  If  a  blessing  is  coming  upon 
London,  I  think  that  they  have  helped  to 


70  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

bring  it.  And  I  think  that  you  will  find  a 
gentleness  and  merriment  among  children 
which  they  did  not  always  have.  I  heard  a 
wonderful  thing  about  a  little  girl  at  Clif- 
ton. It  happened  years  ago,  but  it  bears  on 
the  subject.  She  was  only  seven  or  eight, 
and  she  got  very  ill.  Her  mother  told  her 
that  she  would  not  recover,  on  which  she  said 
that  she  should  like  to  receive  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. Of  course  her  mother  told  her 
that  she  was  too  young,  but  she  sent  for  the 
clergyman  who  asked  her  why  she  wished 
it.  She  answered,  'I  should  like  my  Lord 
to  come  to  me  before  I  go  to  Him.'  I  sup- 
pose that  no  one  would  question  the  wisdom 
which  granted  her  desire.  No,  Ethel,  we 
are  none  of  us  worthy,  but  the  children  are 
not  the  least  worthy." 

For  a  time  there  was  silence,  the  silence  of 
those  who  know  each  other  well,  then  the 
sister  said  musingly,  "It  seems  strange  how 
much  has  happened  while  we  were  going  on 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  71 

the  same  day  after  day,  with  no  leisure  to 
see  visions  or  dream  dreams." 

"Perhaps  the  strangest  thing,"  said  her 
brother,  "is  that  those  who  see  visions  and 
dream  dreams  are  those  who  really  do  the 
work.  The  'building  of  Jerusalem  in  Eng- 
land's green  and  pleasant  land'  has  pro- 
gressed more  rapidly  during  the  last  year 
than  it  did  under  all  the  active  organiza- 
tions of  the  past." 

"I  thought  you  were  not  whole-hearted 
in  your  support  of  the  Ai-chbishop's 
scheme." 

"I  was  not  at  first.  I  will  answer  the 
question  when  the  two  years  are  past." 

Then  they  drifted  back  to  the  days  of 
their  childhood,  and  all  too  soon  the  after- 
noon was  over. 


1 


CHAPTER  VIII 

**YT  comes  to  this,"  said  the  young  man 
frankly.  "My  people  have  denied 
themselves  in  every  way  to  give  me 
a  university  education,  hoping  I  should 
enter  the  Church." 

"You  entered  the  Church  at  your  bap- 
tism," interrupted  the  Archbishop. 

"Hoping  I  should  take  Holy  Orders,  and 
now  I  feel  that  I  can't  do  it.  I  can't  be  a 
typical  country  parson,  and  I  have  not  got 
it  in  me  to  be  the  real  sort." 

The  Archbishop  stretched  out  his  hand 
and  took  a  Prayer  Book. 

"Listen  to  this,"  he  said,  "from  the 
Ordering  of  Priests: 

"  *We  exhort  you,  in  the  Name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  have  in  remem- 

72 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  73 

brance,  into  how  high  a  dignity,  and  to  how 
weighty  an  office  and  charge  ye  are  called: 
that  is  to  say,  to  be  Messengers,  Watchmen, 
and  Stewards  of  the  Lord;  to  teach,  and  to 
premonish,  to  feed  and  provide  for  the 
Lord's  family:  to  seek  for  Christ's  sheep 
that  are  dispersed  abroad,  and  for  His  chil- 
dren who  are  in  the  midst  of  this  naughty 
world,  that  they  may  be  saved  through 
Christ  for  ever.  Have  always  therefore 
printed  in  your  remembrance,  how  great  a 
treasure  is  committed  to  your  charge.  For 
they  are  the  sheep  of  Christ,  which  He 
bought  with  His  death,  and  for  whom  He 
shed  His  blood.  The  Church  and  congre- 
gation whom  you  must  serve,  is  His  Spouse, 
and  His  Body.  And  if  it  shall  happen  the 
same  Church,  or  any  member  thereof,  to 
take  any  hurt  or  hindrance  by  reason  of 
your  negligence,  ye  know  the  greatness  of 
the  fault,  and  also  the  horrible  punishment 
that  will  ensue.  Wherefore,  consider  with 
yourselves  the  end  of  your  Ministry  towards 


74  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

the  children  of  God,  towards  the  Spouse 
and  Body  of  Christ;  and  see  that  you  never 
cease  your  labour,  your  care  and  diligence, 
until  you  have  done  all  that  lieth  in  you, 
according  to  your  bounden  duty,  to  bring 
all  such  as  are  or  shall  be  committed  to  your 
charge,  unto  that  agreement  in  the  faith  and 
knowledge  of  God,  and  to  that  ripeness  and 
perfectness  of  age  in  Christ,  that  there  be 
no  place  left  among  you,  either  for  error  in 
religion,  or  for  viciousness  in  life." 

While  the  Ai-chbishop  read,  the  young 
man's  head  drooped  lower  and  lower,  as  he 
shaded  his  face  with  his  hand.  Now  he 
looked  up  suddenly,  with  shining  eyes, 
"Oh!"  he  cried,  passionately,  "if  that  only 
had  been  done,  but  we  never  guessed,  we 
never  knew " 

"Yes,"  said  the  Ai'chbishop,  "if  we  all 
lived  up  to  that,  England  would  be  Chris- 
tian to-day  and  the  world  would  be  Christian 
to-morrow.  The  fault  lies  with  us — with 
us." 


•     THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  75 

The  last  words  were  so  exceedingly  sad 
that  the  young  man  exclaimed : 

"I  beg  your  Grace's  pardon." 

"No,  what  you  said  was  true.  This  ex- 
hortation gives  a  wonderful  picture  of  the 
function  and  greatness  of  the  Ministry." 

"  'That  His  children  may  be  saved 
through  Christ  for  ever,' "  repeated  the 
young  man.  "I  never  thought  about  it  like 
that  before.  I  see  more  than  ever  that  I 
am  unworthy,  but  this  makes  things  differ- 
ent. Before  I  was  sorry  for  my  mother's 
disappointment,  now " 

"Now?"  repeated  the  Archbishop  as  he 
paused. 

"I  would  have  liked  to  lend  a  hand.  I 
am  a  duffer  at  explaining  things,  but  it 
seems  as  if  there's  a  big  fight  on,  and  I  wish 
I  could  have  done  something  for  those  likely 
to  go  under." 

"Wait  a  little,"  said  the  Archbishop 
kindly.  "It  is  the  most  grievous  thing  for 
a  man  to  rush  into  the  priesthood  without 


76  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

any  vocation,  but  it  may  be  that  God  is  call- 
ing you.  Take  time  for  prayer  and  reflec- 
tion. There  is  a  three  days'  Retreat  at 
Beaconsfield,  beginning  on  the  14th.  Go  to 
it:  it  will  be  no  expense  to  you,  and  I  will 
see  you  on  your  return." 

"I  do  not  know  anything  about  a  Re- 
treat," faltered  the  young  man. 

"It  is  merely  keeping  silence  that  the 
Voice  of  God  may  be  heard.  Go  with  this 
idea,  and  do  not  trouble  yourself  whether 
you  are  doing  what  the  others  are  doing. 
I  shall  expect  you  to  luncheon  on  the  18th, 
till  then  the  matter  is  in  abeyance." 

But  when  the  young  man  came  back  there 
was  a  steadfastness  in  his  face  not  known 
before. 

"I  have  learnt  so  much,"  he  said  quietly, 
"but  now,  though  I  know  my  un worthiness 
more  than  I  did  before,  I  hope  I  may  one 
day  be  His  minister.  I  can't  get  those 
words  out  of  my  head:  'For  they  are  the 
sheep  of  Christ,  which  he  bought  with  His 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  77 

death,  and  for  whom  He  shed  His  Blood.' 
I  would  like  to  help  if  I  might,  only  I  have 
so  much  to  learn." 

"God   bless   you,"   said   the   Archbishop 
gently.     "Now  we  will  talk." 


I 


CHAPTER  IX 

'  *  "^^  HAVE  really  had  a  remarkable  ex- 
perience," said  tlie  Ai-chbishop  as  he 
entered  the  study  one  day.  "I  have 
been  down  to  Hallington,  where  I  found  a 
community  worthy  of  Nicholas  Ferrar  and 
Little  Gidding." 

"Really!"  said  Crawford. 

"Yes.  Halhngton  is  a  small  market  town 
which  possesses  one  of  those  large  rectories, 
built  long  ago  when  the  clergy  were  rich, 
and  various  small  villages  cluster  round  it, 
only  two  or  three  miles  distant.  I  have 
heard  the  Bishop  say  that  life  in  these  vil- 
lages was  intensely  lonely,  there  was  a  very 
small  stipend  for  the  parson,  and  he  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  getting  men  for  the 
livings." 

"Yes?" 

78 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  79 

*'Well,  ]Mr.  Fothergill,  the  Rector  of  Hal- 
lington,  is  a  man  of  great  saintliness,  and 
his  wife  is  an  equal  power.  They  seem  to 
have  imbibed  the  idea  that  the  real  strength 
of  a  parish  lies  not  in  its  outer  activities  but 
in  its  inner  devotion ;  and  the  hf  e  at  the  Rec- 
tory carries  out  the  Prayer  Book  ideal  that 
the  clergy  fashion  not  only  their  lives  but 
the  lives  of  their  household  to  the  glory  of 
God.  At  Hallington  they  live  by  rule. 
They  rise  at  6.30,  and  attend  the  Daily 
Eucharist  at  7.30.  There  is  an  oratory  in 
the  house  where  the  Hours  are  said,  and  a 
great  part  of  each  day  is  mapped  out  in 
work." 

"Teaching  the  children  psalms,  or  doctor- 
ing the  poor?" 

"No,  nor  yet  making  harmonies  of  the 
Gospel.  The  details  are  very  different,  yet 
Nicholas  Ferrar  would  find  the  same  spirit. 
But  I  am  leaving  out  the  chief  point.  The 
Rectory  is  used  as  the  central  point  for  the 
villages  round." 


80  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

*'Do  you  mean  that  the  clergy  of  the  vil- 
lages live  at  the  Rectory?" 

"Practically  they  do,  though  they  sleep 
in  their  parishes  from  Saturday  to  Monday, 
and  other  times  when  needful;  hut  they  get 
the  Daily  Eucharist,  the  sense  of  fellowship, 
and  all  that  would  be  impossible  where  there 
are  only  a  handful  of  labourers  in  the 
parish." 

"But  is  it  not  rather  hard  on  their  par- 
ishes?" 

"No,  on  the  contrary,  their  parishes  gain 
in  every  way.  The  community  at  Halling- 
ton  Rectory  work  in  all  the  parishes.  At 
Friston,  where  there  had  been  no  one  to 
help  with  the  children  or  to  play  the  har- 
monium, one  of  the  Misses  Fothergill  does 
these  things.  The  villages  have  no  church 
schools,  and  bicycles  make  short  work  of  the 
few  miles'  journey.  The  shed  of  bicycles 
was  a  sight  to  see.  Fothergill  makes  full 
use  of  modern  inventions,  though  his  system 
is  mediaeval,  and  telephones  and  type-writ- 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  81 

ers  are  much  used  at  the  Rectory.  The  girls 
are  gifted,  their  music  and  painting  being 
far  above  the  average,  with  the  result  that 
the  choir  at  Hallington  is  a  treat  to  hear, 
while  the  singing  in  the  villages,  where  the 
whole  congregation  are  trained  to  sing  and 
there  is  no  distinctive  choir,  gives  you  a  real 
sense  of  congregational  worship.  I  found 
one  girl  painting  an  Altar-piece  for  Friston, 
another  typing  prayers  for  the  children,  a 
third  mending  surplices." 

"Still,  so  mixed  a  household  must  be 
rather  queer.  You  will  think  me  squeam- 
ish, but  is  it  altogether  desirable?" 

The  Archbishop  laughed. 

"I  see  what  is  in  your  mind.  You  picture 
a  houseful  of  men  and  maidens,  and  all  that 
might  ensue,  but  this  is  a  strictly  ordered 
establishment.  They  only  meet  at  meals, 
and  breakfast  is  taken  in  silence.  I  had  a 
long  talk  with  Fothergill.  His  idea  was 
that  if  the  clergy  married,  their  women  folk 
should    be    of    distinct    advantage    to    the 


82  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

Church.  Of  course  in  thousands  of  cases 
the  amount  of  work  done  by  the  famihes  of 
the  clergy  cannot  be  estimated,  still  there  is 
the  other  side  of  the  picture.  Then  he  held 
very  strongly  with  Nicholas  Ferrar  that  an 
amount  of  work  is  possible  and  pleasant  if 
it  is  done  with  method  and  by  rule.  I  can 
only  say  that  a  day  at  Hallington  is  a  singu- 
lar refreshment  and  rest." 

"Then  do  the  Misses  Fothergill  never  play 
tennis,  or  go  to  dances  or  theatres?" 

"I  believe  they  do  all  these  things  occa- 
sionally, but  pleasure  is  not  the  object  of 
their  lives.  They  realise  this,  and  the  par- 
ish realises  it.     I  began  to  think "  the 

Archbishop  broke  off,  and  his  eyes  rested 
on  his  favourite  picture. 

"What  did  your  Grace  think?"  asked 
Crawford,  dropping  his  critical  tone. 

"I  suppose  it  was  a  dream  of  what  Eng- 
land might  be  if  all  parsonages  were  like 
that.  Even  the  servants  worked  with  the 
spirit  of  the  religious.     There  was  no  gos- 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  83 

sip,  no  fault-finding;  only  a  large,  gentle 
charity  and  great  patience,  as  well  as 
great  happiness.  The  feverish  snatching  at 
pleasure  that  has  been  so  marked  a  feature 
of  the  last  few  years  has  only  brought  dis- 
content, overstrain,  and  misery.  In  seek- 
ing the  Will  of  God,  happiness  is  found." 

"Then,"  said  Crawford  quietly,  "you  will 
recommend  this  way?" 

"Only  privately.  It  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
done  by  command,  but  an  excellent  way  to 
find  out  by  private  devotion.  And  when 
once  established,  there  are  so  many  side 
issues.  They  were  helping  the  wood-carvers 
of  the  place  to  do  something  worthy  of  their 
church.  People  will  begin  to  discover  that 
the  Parish  Church  is  their  own,  and  to  take 
pride  in  working  for  it.  You  must  go  down 
there  one  day  and  see  it  all  for  yourself.  It 
is  a  charm  which  defies  description.  I  sup- 
pose the  real  wonder  is,  that  in  all  these 
years  none  has  been  found  to  emulate 
Little  Gidding.  Well,  we  must  turn  to  the 
letters  now." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  two  years  had  passed  with  ex- 
traordinary rapidity,  and  it  was  the 
day  before  the  great  meeting  of 
Bishops  and  others,  which  had  been  fixed 
for  so  long  a  time. 

During  the  day  hardly  a  word  was  ut- 
tered by  the  Archbishop  or  Crawford  on  the 
subject,  and  the  chaplain  wondered  whether 
the  Archbishop  dreaded  the  morrow  as  much 
as  he  did.  In  spite  of  frequent  visits  to 
distant  parishes,  the  Archbishop  was  singu- 
larly in  the  dark  as  to  the  state  of  the  coun- 
try generally.  Those  who  had  written  to 
him  or  seen  Mm  on  special  points  were  few 
among  the  many,  and  the  matter  had  long 
ceased  to  interest  the  Press.  It  would  not 
be   surprising   if   the    morrow   disclosed   a 

84 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  85 

great  lapse  among  the  girls  through  lack  of 
the  G.F.S.,  or  a  sad  falling  off  among 
women,  through  the  suppression  of  the 
Mothers'  Union,  and  so  on,  with  the  innu- 
merable societies. 

Would  their  supporters  triumph,  and 
would  everything  go  on  again  as  before? 

The  Bishop  of  D would  speak  as  vio- 
lently as  ever,  and  the  Archbishop  would 
be  reminded  of  his  youth  and  his  absurdly 
Utopian  scheme. 

It  would  be  better  when  the  day  was  over, 
and  the  Archbishop  knew  the  worst,  yet  it 
was  a  day  that  required  much  courage. 

Dinner  was  a  hurried  meal  taken  almost 
in  silence,  and  early  in  the  evening  the 
Archbishop  bade  Crawford  good-night. 
With  a  heavy  heart  the  chaplain  went  to  his 
study,  but  when  later  he  sought  his  room, 
he  knew  that  there  was  still  a  hght  in  the 
chapel. 

"Perhaps  he  would  rather  be  alone,"  he 
sighed,  but  he  could  not  sleep,  and  at  last 


86  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

he  went  silently  down  the  stairs,  along  the 
passages,  and  into  the  chapel. 

The  flickering  light  fell  on  the  Altar  cross, 
and  when  Crawford's  eyes  grew  accustomed 
to  the  dimness,  he  saw  a  figure  bowed  and 
motionless  in  prayer. 

Through  one  window  came  a  patch  of 
light  from  the  moon,  and  everything  seemed 
intensely  still. 

"If  two  of  you  shall  agree  .  .  ."  It 
seemed  almost  as  if  a  voice  spoke  in  the 
stillness;  yet  no  sound  was  there.  Did  the 
great  city  outside  sleep  ?  Does  London  ever 
sleep? 

At  least  in  the  great  wards  of  the  hospital 
close  by,  patients  lay  sleepless  and  nurses 
ministered  to  them,  speaking  of  the  day. 
Further  away  voices  were  disputing  in 
Westminster  and  reporters  still  busy. 

How  many  souls  were  sending  up  peti- 
tions to  the  great  Throne  of  God,  where  the 
sighing  of  a  contrite  heart  is  heard  above  the 
clamour  of  the  world? 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  87 

"If  two  of  you  shall  agree  .  .  ." 

They  had  agreed. 

Close  by,  the  river  flowed  on,  as  it  will 
flow  to  the  end  of  time,  with  its  strong  re- 
lentless current ;  but  a  force  of  greater  power 
was  at  work  within  the  chapel  as  the  hours 
went  by. 

Silence  at  last,  and  no  distant  roll  of  traf- 
fic, while  it  was  darker  than  before. 

The  strain  in  Crawford's  mind  had  given 
place  to  a  great  surrender  to  the  Will  of 
God,  as  he  knelt  there  without  words  or 
definite  thought,  only  pleading  in  intention 
the  One  Great  Sacrifice. 

Then  suddenly  everything  grew  visible, 
and  through  the  window  came  the  pure  rays 
of  early  dawn. 

For  the  first  time  the  Archbishop  moved, 
then  he  rose  from  his  knees,  stretched  his 
arms,  looking  up  towards  the  light,  and  as 
he  turned  he  caught  sight  of  his  chaplain. 

"If  two  of  you  shall  agree  .  .  ." 

Crawford  caught  his  eyes,  he  rose  to  his 


88  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

feet,  and  together  they  bowed  towards  the 
Altar  and  left  the  chapel. 

"It  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven." 

The  night  was  past,  and  once  more  the 
sun  had  risen  on  a  day  of  boundless  hope. 


CHAPTER  XI 

TO-DAY  as  the  Archbishop  looked  at 
the  faces  before  him,  he  said  httle, 
asking  rather  that  he  might  learn 
from  those  better  qualified  to  know  what 
was  their  experience  of  the  past  two  years. 

There  was  a  singular  quiet  in  the  assem- 
bly, which  had  not  been  there  two  years  be- 
fore, and  when  the  Archbishop  sat  down  the 
Bishop  of  D rose  to  his  feet  and  spoke : 

"There  is  only  one  thing  I  wish  to  say," 
he  said  clearly,  "and  that  is  that  I  know  now 
that  I  was  wrong  in  what  I  said  before,  and 
I  apologise  for  it.  If  the  experience  of  my 
brethren  is  the  same  as  mine,  they  will  know 
that  we  have  been  translated  into  a  more 
spiritual  world  where  words  and  arguments 
are  lost  in  Prayer  and  Communion  with 
God.     Others  will  give  expression  to  what 

89 


90  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

I  know  and  feel.  I  can  only  thank  our 
Archbishop  for  setting  our  feet  on  the  lad- 
der, which,  while  it  starts  on  earth,  rests  in 
Heaven.  For  so  long  we  had  grown  accus- 
tomed to  commercial  statistics  and  human 
organisations  that  we  had  forgotten  that  the 
Church,  the  divine  instrument,  was  not 
meant  to  be  a  copy  of  human  conventions." 

To  those  accustomed  in  debate  to  the  fiery 

utterances   of  the   Bishop   of  D ,   this 

speech  seemed  as  great  a  wonder  as  any- 
thing that  could  happen. 

Then  another  Bishop  got  up  and  spoke 
of  the  obhgation  laid  on  the  Episcopate  to 
"show  themselves  gentle  and  merciful  for 
Christ's  sake  to  poor  and  needy  people,  and 
to  all  strangers  destitute  of  help,"  and  as 
he  spoke  the  Archbishop  saw  again  the  pale 
face  of  Miss  Fanny,  while  for  a  moment  the 
library  seemed  to  change  into  the  hayfield 
of  long  ago. 

The  Prelate,  who  had  no  eloquence,  made 
a  confession  rather  than  a  speech.     Often  in 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  91 

the  past  organisation,  meetings,  and  public 
business  had  taken  up  most  of  the  day  and 
much  of  the  night.  Now  they  had  come 
back  to  the  Church's  ideal:  "Be  to  the  flock 
of  Christ  a  shepherd,  not  a  wolf;  feed  them. 
.  .  .  Hold  up  the  weak,  heal  the  sick,  bind 
up  the  broken,  bring  again  the  outcasts, 
seek  the  lost."  For  his  part,  he  could  say 
that  this  side  of  his  ministry  had  been 
crowded  out.  He  felt  it  a  reproach,  possi- 
bly his  brethren  might  share  his  opinion, 
that  so  seldom  had  he  been  sought  in  the  old 
days  by  his  clergy  for  consolation  or  help, 
though  they  had  come  in  scores  when  wor- 
ried by  contentious  parishioners  or  church- 
wardens. It  was  not  to  the  Bishop  that  the 
lonely  Parish  Priest  turned,  yet  surely  the 
Bishop  was  pledged  to  be  his  father  and  his 
guide.  The  term  "Shepherd"  made  him  re- 
flect. "Be  so  merciful,  that  you  be  not  too 
remiss;  so  minister  discipline,  that  you  for- 
get not  mercy."  Did  this  picture  call  up  to 
the  mind  of  the  ordinary  man  a  Bishop? 


92  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

He  was  followed  by  other  speakers  who 
gave  some  idea  of  the  state  of  the  Church 
throughout  the  country  till  a  perception  of 
the  whole  grew  before  the  minds  of  the  hear- 
ers with  force  and  reality.  Daily  prayers 
were  held  in  every  church,  and  it  was  seldom 
true  that  there  was  no  one  to  come.  There 
were  rural  districts  where  the  Litany  was 
said  at  5  a.  m.,  and  the  labourers  joined  in 
it  on  their  way  to  work.  Work  was  sus- 
pended everywhere  for  the  short  space  on 
Rogation  Days  that  special  prayers  were 
said  in  farmyard  or  field,  and  people  were 
beginning  to  beheve  in  prayer  now  that  they 
understood  it. 

Clergy  also  found  that  a  congregation  at 
the  Daily  Eucharist  depended  upon  two 
things — that  the  people  were  taught,  and 
that  the  hour  of  the  service  was  a  possible 
one  for  the  parishioners.  As  a  whole,  the 
clergy  rose  much  earlier  and  retired  earher, 
not  being  worn  out  with  clubs  and  meetings. 

Again  the  mediaeval  standard  seemed  to 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  93 

be  coming  back,  when  few  boys  in  England, 
gentle  or  simple,  did  not  serve  or  sing  about 
the  Altar. 

But  perhaps  the  most  striking  testimony 
was  borne  by  a  Bishop  who  was  also  an 
M.D.  of  note,  and  he  prefaced  his  remarks 
by  saying  that  he  was  stating  the  impression 
of  the  medical  profession,  and  not  merely 
speaking  personally.  In  the  peaceful  calm 
that  was  sweeping  over  England,  there  was 
a  marked  decrease  in  hysteria  and  insanity. 
Of  recent  years  the  stress  and  strain  of 
modern  life  had  been  so  gi-eat  that  many 
who  had  not  succumbed  to  it  were  yet  so 
exhausted  in  nerve  and  brain  that  their  pow- 
ers were  enfeebled,  and  unless  a  pause  had 
come  in  the  rush,  it  was  difficult  to  see  what 
would  have  been  the  future  of  the  human 
race.  But  a  pause  had  come,  and  with  lei- 
sure, growth  had  become  evident — growth  of 
brain,  of  power,  of  genius.  It  was  said  that 
in  England  during  the  last  century,  none 
had  had  so  good  an  opportunity  as  those 


94  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

born  in  the  seventies.  Favourable  condi- 
tions were  coming  back,  acknowledged  and 
welcomed  even  by  those  outside  the  Church, 
who  could  not  understand  the  circumstances 
which  had  brought  them  about,  and  children 
would  grow  up,  not  handicapped  in  the  race 
of  life.  Leisure  had  come  not  only  to  pray, 
but  to  think  and  to  develop  as  God  meant 
man  to  develop.  No  one  could  see  visions 
or  dream  dreams  if  he  were  incessantly  run- 
ning from  committee  to  meeting,  and  fight- 
ing with  engagements  too  numerous  to  keep. 
That  was  not  what  life  was  meant  to  be. 
]Man  was  made  in  the  Image  of  God,  and 
some  reflection  of  that  Image,  he  was  meant 
to  give  to  a  dazzled,  wondering  world.  He 
was  meant  to  do  God's  work  in  God's  way, 
not  in  a  poor  imitation  of  the  world's  way. 
The  weapons  of  our  warfare  were  not  car- 
nal, but  mighty  through  God,  and  it  was  as 
true  now  as  it  was  when  the  psalmist  wrote 
it  that  "the  gentleness  of  God  made  us 
great." 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  95 

At  this  point,  when  some  were  beginning 
to  think  that  the  speaker  was  wandering 
from  his  theme,  he  sat  down,  and  a  Bishop 
got  up,  whose  face  of  beaming  happiness 
was  good  to  look  upon. 

"I  am  strongly  convinced,"  he  said,  "that 
we  Bishops  were  the  root  of  all  the  mis- 
chief." Then,  when  the  laughter  had  died 
away,  he  went  on  gravely,  "There  is  no  need 
for  me  to  dwell  much  on  what  Sunday  now 
is,  whethej^  you  spend  it  in  London  or  some 
country  village.  In  the  early  morning  we 
no  longer  walk  through  deserted  streets  or 
solitary  lanes  to  a  half-empty  church.  No, 
the  children  are  all  up,  God  bless  them,  and 
they  have  brought  their  fathers  and  mothers. 
As  soon  as  our  man-made  rule  of  the  age  of 
sixteen  for  Confirmation  was  knocked  down, 
half  of  our  present  difficulties  went  with  it. 
The  children  are  flocking  into  the  Kingdom 
of  God;  they  believe  what  we  tell  them  at 
Confirmation,  and  become  communicants 
from  the  first.     Any  fears  we  may  have  had 


96  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

of  irreverence  have  been  gi'oundless,  and 
children  are  thronging  our  Altars.  Now 
that  there  really  is  religious  education,  we 
can  afford  to  distress  ourselves  little  about 
the  ruling  of  the  State.  To  the  children  of 
England  our  Lord  has  become  a  Living 
Person,  and  once  more  ours  will  become  a 
Christian  country.  Parents  are  roused  to  a 
sense  of  their  responsibility  now  that  it  is 
really  children  whom  we  confirm,  and  the 
family  prayer  in  many  a  cottage  puts  us  to 
shame." 

The  next  speaker  dwelt  on  all  that  had 
grown  out  of  a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
prayer. 

"People  are  coming  to  us,"  he  said,  "as 
of  old  they  came  to  Philip,  or  as  Inglesant 
went  to  De  Cressy,  saying,  'Sir,  we  would 
see  Jesus,'  and  perhaps  the  whole  purpose  of 
the  ministry  is  to  enable  them  to  do  this. 
I  remember  years  ago,  the  shock  it  was  to 
some  people  when  it  was  said  that  the  object 
of  the  Parish  Priest  was  to  teach  his  people 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  97 

to  pray  and  to  meditate,  but  now  our  out- 
look is  changed ;  and  we  are  wise  in  acknowl- 
edging that  prayer  is  an  art  which  requires 
to  be  learnt,  and  for  which  the  real  Teacher 
is  the  Holy  Spirit.  Nothing  is  more  re- 
markable than  the  growth  of  Retreats  for 
ordinary  working  men  and  women.  It 
would  be  sad  to  reflect,  were  it  not  useless 
to  spend  much  time  in  recalling  a  past  when 
we  meant  to  do  well,  how  much  time  and 
money  has  been  spent  in  exterior  schemes 
and  organisations  for  the  welfare  of  our 
people,  which  never  touched  their  personal- 
ity or  character.  Now  we  have  grasped  the 
truth  that  the  great  thing  in  life  is  to  get  a 
man  tete-a-tete  with  God,  and  we  are  sur- 
prised to  find  that  the  Prayer  Book  grasped 
the  idea  all  the  time.  From  his  baptism  to 
his  death  the  Christian  is  cared  for,  and 
what  we,  as  Churchmen,  have  to  remember 
is  that  character  is  of  infinitely  more  impor- 
tance than  circumstances.  I  have  not  for- 
gotten what  was  once  said  to  a  Parish  Priest 


98  THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

who  complained  that  he  could  not  convert 
his  people.  'You  must  first  convert  your- 
self.' We  Bishops  owe  a  great  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  Religious  Communities  who 
have  made  Retreats  a  reality  to  us.  When 
we  become  tete-a-tete  with  God,  our  ordina- 
tions and  our  influence  with  men  is  of  a  far 
deeper  order,  and  so  on  through  all  the 
states  of  life.  After  all,  there  is  a  divine 
paradox  in  spiritual  things,  and  if  we  would 
affect  men,  we  must  keep  our  eyes  fixed  on 
God.  At  last  we  are  learning  to  be  still, 
and  when  England  has  learnt  the  lesson 
thoroughly  she  will  have  that  added  knowl- 
edge that  she  knows  God." 

Afterwards  Crawford  said  to  Dennett : 

"Many  spoke,  but  they  all  came  to  pretty 
much  the  same  conclusion,  and  I  was  wait- 
ing for  the  Bishops  to  finish,  to  hear  the 
opposition  get  up  in  the  persons  of  the  so- 
cieties so  long  suppressed." 

"And  what  did  they  say?" 

"Well,  the  first  to  speak  was  the  secretary 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST  99 

of  a  society  for  befriending  children,  and 
he  said  that  the  ground  was  cut  from  under 
his  feet,  for  men  were  beginning  to  learn 
their  duty  towards  God  and  their  duty  to- 
wards their  neighbour,  so  that  the  evils 
which  they  had  combated  no  longer  existed." 
"Then  was  there  no  opposition?" 
"Oh,  yes,  a  few  secretaries  spoke  up  for 
the  old  state  of  things,  but  they  carried  no 
conviction  with  them." 

"And  what  was  the  practical  outcome?" 
"Well,  you  can  hardly  say  that  anything 
was  practically  decided.     You  see  the  meet- 
ing was  a  general  view  of  the  attempt  to 
obey  the  Prayer  Book,  and  certainly  the 
consensus  of  opinion  was  that  the  state  of 
things  brought  about  by  this  obedience  was 
desirable  and  remarkable.     Possibly  a  few 
societies  will  go  on  for  a  time  till  men  see 
that  there  is  no  need  for  them." 
"Then  how  did  it  all  end?" 
"All!"  cried  Crawford,  "you  should  have 
been  there  to  hear  that." 


loo         THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

But  he  had  gi-own  silent,  and  Dennett 
went  away  without  hearing  anything  more, 
while  the  chaplain  let  his  memory  go  back  to 
the  two  final  speeches. 

The  Primate  of  the  Northern  Province 
had  risen  when  all  who  wished  to  speak  had 
done  so,  and  as  he  used  the  word  Britain 
instead  of  England,  some  remembered  all 
that  was  owed  to  the  Scottish  Church,  while 
visions  of  lona  rose  before  their  minds. 
Then  he  pictured  the  Church  coming  down 
from  the  early  days,  strong  when  she  was 
spiritual,  weak  as  material  prosperity  and 
politics  became  interwoven  with  her  life. 
Then  came  the  deadness  of  respectability, 
and  men  lost  their  ideals,  labouring  cease- 
lessly for  what  could  never  satisfy  the  hu- 
man heart. 

"Have  you  ever  watched  a  field  ripe  with 
hay  in  early  summer?"  asked  the  Arch- 
bishop, "its  silver-green  glinting  in  the  sun- 
light. And  then  there  comes  a  breeze 
sweeping  over  its  surface,  turning  it  red  as 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST         101 

it  passes  by.  To  us  it  is  a  simile.  This 
pleasant  land  of  ours  was  full  of  souls  made 
in  the  Image  of  God,  but  only  when  the 
Breath  of  His  Holy  Spirit  had  moved  them, 
was  revealed  the  deep  red  bond  of  a  world 
bought  by  a  Saviour's  Blood,  and  they  knew 
what  really  held  them,  and  could  never  fall 
back  to  a  lower  level,  having  once  tasted 
what  it  was  to  be  saved  by  His  Life.  So 
again,  as  of  old,  we  are  led  forth  in  the 
search  of  the  Holy  Grail,  and  we  can  afford 
to  leave  the  grasping  of  more  material 
things  to  others.  Many  a  man  since  the 
days  of  Blake  has  cried: 

"I  will  not  cease  from  mental  strife, 
Nor  shall  my  sword  sleep  in  my  hand 
Till  I  have  built  Jerusalem, 
In  England's  green  and  pleasant  land." 

"But  till  lately  Jerusalem  has  grown  but 
slowly.  Even  now  there  is  much  to  deplore 
in  our  land,  but  the  city  is  rising  surely  if 
slowly  towards  Heaven.     An  earlier  verse 


102         THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

in  the  poem  gives  us  the  motive  of  it  all — 
the  fact  that  the  Feet  of  our  Lord  once  trod 
this  earth  of  ours.  When  we  remember 
that,  and  all  that  it  entails,  we  lose  the 
thought  of  Heaven  in  earth  and  of  earth  in 
Heaven.  To  us  who  are  granted  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Incarnation  in  the  most  Blessed 
Sacrament,  there  is  no  need  for  words,  for 
in  that  Mystery  we  all  meet,  we  with  Him, 
and  with  those  gone  before  whose  vision  of 
the  Holy  Grail  is  in  the  Perfect  Light." 

No  one  spoke,  for  their  hearts  in  glad 
certainty  confirmed  his  words,  and  they 
were  still. 

Then  the  Primate  rose  and  all  eyes  were 
turned  on  him. 

"Thank  God,"  he  said  simply,  "for  all 
that  we  have  heard  to-day.  To  Him  alone 
is  the  glory  for  the  blessing  which  rests  on 
our  land.  I  cannot  claim  to  have  shared  the 
Archbishop  of  York's  dream  of  building 
Jerusalem  in  England's  green  and  pleasant 
land,  in  carrying  out  what  has  been  errone- 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST         103 

ously  called  'The  Archbishop's  Scheme.'  I 
have  acted  as  I  have  done  because  it  seemed 
to  me  right.  Aii  old  General  wrote  to  me 
the  other  day:  'Tell  your  officers  to  obey 
rules  and  to  make  them  known.'  My  broth- 
ers, I  know  that  these  two  years  have  not 
been  easy  for  you,  and  I  can  never  say  how 
thankful  I  am  for  the  loyalty  of  the  Church 
under  a  distasteful  order.  That  obedience 
has  not  led  to  failure,  we  have  been  told  to- 
day; but  had  the  immediate  result  been  ap- 
parent failure,  to  my  mind  our  duty  would 
have  been  still  the  same.  Almighty  God 
gives  us  our  work,  but  the  issues  of  it  are 
in  His  Hands,  and  it  is  not  for  us  to  worry 
about  results.  It  is  the  sowing  that  counts, 
not  the  reaping." 

Crawford's  eyes  kindled  as  he  looked  at 
his  friend  standing  before  them,  Saul-like  in 
his  stature,  splendid  in  his  strength  and  con- 
fidence. 

"We  must  remember  the  force  of  a  pas- 
sage   in    Scripture    too    httle    emphasised. 


104         THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

'Barnabas  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  of  faith,  and  much  people 
was  added  unto  the  Lord.'  Personal  holi- 
ness is  the  Lord's  weapon  for  the  conversion 
of  the  world,  not  counter-attractions,  or  so- 
cieties to  enclose  the  weak;  and  personal 
holiness  is  brought  about  by  prayer  and  the 
use  of  the  Sacraments.  The  obedience  to 
the  Prayer  Book  shown  during  these  two 
years  by  our  Provinces  proves  to  us  that 
that  Prayer  Book  has  not  all  the  faults  for- 
merly attributed  to  it.  Revision  may  come 
after  a  time  when,  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  our  people  know  the 
book  by  heart,  and  wish  it  to  restore  a  few 
things  that  are  ancient  and  catholic;  but  I 
think  that  at  present  we  are  wise  in  letting 
it  stand  as  it  does.  Naturally  the  study  of 
the  Prayer  Book  has  led  to  the  study  of  his- 
tory, and  men  no  longer  speak  of  the 
Church  in  England  as  a  new  creation  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation.  Much  as  we  owe 
to  St.  Augustine's  mission,  we  know  that 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST         105 

long  before  that  time  the  Church  existed  in 
the  British  Isles,  the  same  Church  that  we 
have  to-day  with  her  unbroken  succession  of 
Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons." 

Then,  very  shortly,  he  described  what  it 
was  to  be  in  the  world  and  not  of  the  world, 
till  a  picture  grew  of  the  Spiritual  Kingdom 
which  could  never  die — a  kingdom  in  which 
all  might  find  a  home — the  rich  and  the  poor, 
young  and  old,  and  the  laughing,  happy 
children. 

Thej'-  were  coming  at  last,  from  the  busy 
factories  and  the  crowded  streets;  from  the 
wealthy  homes  and  the  public  schools,  over 
the  moorland  hills  and  through  the  country 
lanes — all  the  thousands  in  our  land  Avere 
discovering  that  they  were  children  of  God, 
and  that  He  had  a  place  for  each  in  His 
Church.  They  had  been  convinced  of  this 
truth  because  they  had  seen  in  the  under- 
shepherds  the  reflection  of  the  Life  of  the 
One  Great  Shepherd.  It  was  our  Lord 
Jesus  who  said,  "I  am  the  good  Shepherd: 


106         THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST 

the  good  Shepherd  giveth  His  Life  for  the 
sheep." 

With  a  sudden  impulse  the  whole  assem- 
bly rose  to  their  feet,  and  stood  motionless, 
while  the  Archbishop's  voice  rang  out,  "I 
am  the  good  shepherd,  and  know  my  sheep, 
and  am  known  of  mine.  As  the  Father 
knoweth  me,  even  so  know  I  the  Father,  and 
I  lay  down  my  life  for  the  sheep.  And 
other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this 
fold :  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall 
hear  my  voice;  .  .  .  and  there  shall  be  one 
Fold  and  one  Shepherd." 

Within  the  library  there  was  silence,  deep 
silence;  then  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  Church 
bells  throughout  the  world  rang  their  joyful 
peals  which  went  swelling  up  to  the  Great 
Throne  of  God. 

•  ••••• 

Once  more  the  Bishops  had  dispersed,  and 
the  Archbishop  and  his  chaplain  were  to- 
gether in  the  study. 

"Now,"  said  the  Archbishop,  turning  to- 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S  TEST         107 

wards  him,  "I  will  grant  your  request. 
You  may  resign  if  you  wish  it.  Ridley, 
Holt,  Cunningham — which  of  them  shall  I 
choose?" 

"Do  you  think,"  cried  Crawford,  *'that 
anything  in  the  world  would  tempt  me  to 
leave  you?  I  am  here  till  you  send  me 
away." 

"How  would  it  be,"  said  the  Archbishop 
with  almost  boyish  glee,  "if  we  gave  our- 
selves a  holiday  to-morrow,  and  took  a  day 
on  the  river?  Don't  we  deserve  it  for 
once?" 

To  which  proposition  Crawford  heartily 
agreed. 

Then,  as  it  often  loved  to  do,  the  Spring 
sunhght  lingered  on  the  Thorn-Crowned 
Head  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows  in  the  old  pic- 
ture on  the  wall,  and  once  more  the  eyes  of 
both  men  were  fixed  on  it. 

THE   END 


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